Hugo González, world champion in the 200 meters backstroke

The Spanish Hugo González won the gold medal this Friday, after winning the 200 meter backstroke event at the Doha World Cup.

With a finish time of 1:55.30, the Mallorcan swimmer finished ten hundredths ahead of the Swiss Roman Mityukov (1:55.40), while the South African Pieter Coetze completed the podium.

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Hugo González wins silver in the 100m backstroke at the Doha World Cup

González thus achieved her second medal in the Swimming World Cup, where last Tuesday she had already achieved silver in the 100-meter backstroke final, the first medal for Spanish swimming in the pool modality since the three achieved by Mireia Belmonte in 2017. .

Furthermore, with this triumph, González became the fourth Spaniard to be crowned world champion in long course after Martín López Zubero, gold in the 200 backstroke in 1991 and gold in the 100 meters backstroke in 1994, Nina Zhivanevskaya, gold in the 50 meters backstroke in 2003, and the aforementioned Mireia Belmonte, gold in the 200 butterfly in 2017.

After the test, the Mallorcan thanked everyone who has accompanied him on his path to gold: “few words, beyond thanks to the entire team that has been behind me, to Taja (his coach), to my girlfriend Linda, to my brothers who are scattered around the world, but are always behind, and to my parents Juan Miguel and Nadia,” declared the world champion.

González also acknowledged that some of the best in the world did not compete in Doha, but he set his sights on the horizon and said he is preparing to continue achieving success when the most outstanding swimmers are present.

“I know there are people who are not here, but I will continue working so that when they are, I can also be at their level,” he said.

Finally, the Mallorcan commented on his finish time, the best of his entire career: “My best ever, by a second, unbeatable.

"I didn't know that it had been thirty years since a Spanish swimmer (in the men's category) had won gold at a World Cup."

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