Portugal's first two medals in Kocaeli came off record pace. The record that did fall finished sixth
Marco Meneses took silver in the 400m freestyle S11 and Diogo Cancela bronze in the 100m butterfly S8 at the European Para Swimming Championships in Türkiye. Susana Veiga cut nearly two seconds off her own national mark and placed sixth.
Portugal got off the mark at the European Para Swimming Championships in Kocaeli with two medals in Wednesday’s finals session. Marco Meneses finished runner-up in the 400m freestyle S11 in 4:41.52, and Diogo Cancela took bronze in the 100m butterfly S8 in 1:04.66.
Look at the clock, though, and neither medal came from a perfect swim.
Meneses, seventh earlier in the 50m freestyle final, was almost five seconds outside his own best, which is also the Portuguese record at the distance: 4:36.36. He said afterwards that he had wanted both the podium and something near that mark, and had come away with one of the two. Cancela was much closer to his: 36 hundredths off the 1:04.30 national record he already holds. He still has the 50m freestyle and the 200m individual medley to swim, and called it a good opening for what is coming.
The record of the session did not medal
The one Portuguese record that actually fell that evening produced no medal at all. Susana Veiga went 1:13.60 in the 100m butterfly S9, taking nearly two seconds off her previous best of 1:15.57, and touched sixth. It will appear on no medal table anywhere, and in a career it counts for a good deal more than that suggests.
Two more Portuguese swimmers finished just outside. João Fidalgo was fifth in the 400m freestyle S10 final and Ana Castro fourth in the 100m butterfly S8.
The championships run in Kocaeli, in Türkiye, and Portugal is back in the water on Thursday: Ricardo Soares, who has already broken the national 400m freestyle record at these championships, swims the 100m backstroke, with Ana Castro returning for the 100m freestyle.
For Meneses this is a second European meet inside a month. In August he closed the Paris championships with two bronzes on consecutive days, at the first edition to fold para events into the same programme. It extends a summer in which Portuguese sport had already set a Mediterranean Games medal record.
By Vasco Almada
Photo: Comité Paralímpico de Portugal
