Abal, Garrone Dominate Argentina’s Short Course Nationals

By Jorge Aguado

SANTA FE, Argentina, July 6. FORMER ASU standout Pablo Abal and Maria Virginia Garrrone each won five events after three days of swimming at the Argentina National Short Course Championships in Santa Fe. The meet finishes up tomorrow.

Abal just missed breaking several national records as he won events in three difdferent disciplines: the 50m back in 24.76, 100 back in 53.92, 50 fly in 24.21, 100 fly in 52.75 and 100m IM in 55.79. In each event he came within a few hundredths to a few tenths of a second from the national mark.

Maria Garrone, 24, demonstrated her versatility, by also winning five events in three disciplines: 100m free in 56.26, 200 free in 2:01.96, 50 back in 29.89, 100 back in 1:04.27, andf 100 fly in 1:02.71. In the 800 free she finished 8-hundredths of a second behind
Georgina Bardach.

For her part, Bardach won four women's events: 800 free in 8:47.28, 200 back in 2:17.35, 200 fly in 2:18.70 and 400 IM in 4:49.54.

Argentina's best swimmer, Jose Meolans, took the 100 free in 49.24 and the 200 in 1:46.08.

Only two national records were set in Santa Fe, both by the same swimmer and both by razor-thin margins. In the 50m breaststroke, 17 year-old Augustina De Giovanni clocked 33.41 seconds, 4-hundredths better than the old standard; in the 100 breast, she cut it even closer, clocking 1:11.30 and slicing 1-hundredth of a second off her own mark. In both events she won by enormOus margins — four seconds in the 50 and nine in the hundred.

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