Portuguese swimmer Gabriel Lopez guaranteed his presence today in the final of the 200 meter butterfly at the European Aquatics Championships, amid the organizational chaos resulting from bad weather conditions, in Belgrade.
Bad weather forced the races to be halted for about 20 minutes, but Gabriel Lopez ended up swimming a little ahead of schedule, after the 1,500-meter final was postponed until Sunday.
“This was a bit chaotic. The organization didn't know how to handle this situation. The schedules were always changing. Suddenly, there were 1,500 people at the front, and I was expecting to swim for an hour and then another hour came. But that was the same for everyone.” “It was a bit strange, I'm not going to lie, but unexpected events are always part of the job.”
Gabriel Lopez ranked seventh among the swimmers who qualified for the final with a time of 1:59.63 minutes, assuming that this was “another step” and that he had achieved his goal of being in Sunday’s race.
The swimmer from Lausanne, Natasau, stressed that the semi-final “should have been today”, because the competitions end on Sunday and it was not possible to “hold the semi-final and final on the same day.”
“So I think the only option they have is to change one of the finals. The 1,500 is the final that takes the longest. We have to play all the semi-finals today, even with the conditions we have.”
However, Gabriel Lopez confirmed that he did not feel the rain while swimming, but rather before jumping into the water.
“I think we have to wait a little more before the race, try not to stop moving, and stay warm before shooting. They have also started to move the presentations forward so that we are not left in the rain. It was possible to work in these conditions.”
The 200-meter freestyle final is scheduled to take place at 19:07 local time (18:07 Lisbon time).
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