Hugo González takes advantage of the opportunity and wins silver in the 100 backstroke at the World Cup. At 24 years old, in full maturity, already graduated in Computer Engineering at the University of Berkeley and settled in California.
At the Doha World Cup his horizon was clear in the absence of all the Olympic finalists in the100 meters backstroke except him. Only the Yankee Hunter Armstrong, her training partner in California, could surpass him and he did so by just two hundredths, with the rest of the contenders far behind.