The Paralympic swimmer from CRASTO -- Castro Daire finished the final of the 50 meters with a time of 27.05 seconds, breaking the national record of 27.13, which he had set in the morning heats, in which he beat the time of 27.47. Marco Meneses was only 16 hundredths of a second behind the third-placed finisher, Lithuanian Edgaras Matakas (26.89), who won the bronze medal, in a race won by Dutchman Rogier Dorsman (26.39). At the end of the race, Marco Meneses, who is totally blind, admitted that "in the morning heats, the goal was to improve the national record, which was achieved" and that in the final he aspired to reach the medals. "I didn't get a medal, but I improved my time, which was very good anyway," said Marco Meneses, admitting that he swam the final "giving it his all," and that this result "is a motivation for the Paralympic Games," a competition in which he has practically secured his presence. In the final of the 400-meter freestyle S8, Diogo Cancela, from ALN -- Louzan Natação, finished sixth, with a time of 4.34.61 minutes, improving the previous national record (4.36.27) that already belonged to him. The race, which awarded the first medals of the competition, was won by Italian Alberto Amoedo (4.24.29), with Russian Andrei Nykolaev, Paralympic champion, winning silver (4.29.56). With his presence practically assured at the Paris2024 Paralympic Games, Diogo Cancela made a "positive assessment" of his participation in the race, but admitted: "I was expecting a slightly better result, but I set a national record, which was good." The swimmer expressed his hope of achieving, in Funchal, "a good result in the 100 butterfly, and even better in the 200 medley," a distance in which he won a silver medal at last year's World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships. In the direct final of the 100-meter backstroke S6, Daniel Videira finished fifth, with a time of 1.19.89, improving the national record for the distance (1.20.80), which already belonged to him, in a race won by Russian Aleksei Ganiuk (1.13.47), who, like his compatriots, competes under a neutral flag. Daniel Videira said he had achieved "a great result," recalling that he had finished fifth overall but fourth European, since the competition is in the Open category and is therefore open to athletes from non-European countries. "Taking almost a second off a national record in a 100-meter race is incredible," said the swimmer, who finished the distance immediately behind Chinese swimmer Yanhbo Luo (1.18.68). The European Paralympic Swimming Championships, which run until Saturday at the Complexo de Piscinas Olímpicas do Funchal, in Madeira, bring together 427 athletes, including seven Portuguese, from 51 countries. The competition is of particular importance in the rankings that will determine the nominal allocation of quotas for the Paris2024 Paralympic Games, which will be held from August 28 to September 8. In Paralympic swimming, swimmers with locomotor disabilities are grouped in the various styles according to their functional capacities, through evaluations of, among other things, muscular strength, coordination, and limitation of movement. The class number is preceded by the letter S (Swimming), with classes S1 to S10 grouping swimmers with physical-motor limitations, classes 11 to 13 grouping swimmers with visual impairments, and class S14 being exclusive to athletes with intellectual disabilities.