Hokie ClubBUDAPEST – Carles Coll Marti has been crowned a World Champion at the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming Championships with his first-place finish in the 200m breast (2:01.55).
Coll Marti’s winning time of 2:01.55 is also a new Spanish National Record – his fourth new National Record of the week. The Catalonia, Spain, native pulled away on the final 25m and clocked a 15.87 over the final stretch to claim the 200 breast title.
It is the first medal for Spain in 10 years at the World Aquatics Championships.
The gold adds to Coll Marti’s already successful weekend in Budapest. He broke the Spanish National Record in the 50 breast SCM (26.29) and the 100 breast SCM (56.67) en route to a 10th-place finish in the 100 breast. Coll Marti, along with Hokie teammates Carmen Weiler Sastre and Mario Molla Yanes, set the Spanish National Record in the 4x50 mixed relay team at 1:39.11.
Coll Marti will go down as one of the best Virginia Tech swimmers in program history. He owns both Hokie program records in the 100 breast (50.95) and 200 breast 1:49.69). He garnered First Team All-American honors this year with his third-place finish in the 200 breast at the NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships.
No stranger to the international stage, Coll Marti also represented Spain at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.