2019 PAN AMERICAN GAMES
- Villa Deportiva Nacional – Videna, Lima, Peru
- Tuesday, August 6th – Saturday, August 10th (pool swimming)
- Prelims 11 AM / Finals 8:30 PM (local time/US Central Time)
- Official Website
- Entry List
- Live Results
Friday marks the fourth of five days of swimming at the 2019 Pan Am Games, where there will be medals awarded in six different events.
The preliminary schedule is a relatively light one, with only the men’s and women’s 50 free and 400 IM on the docket.
At night, there will also be the men’s and women’s 4×200 freestyle relays.
NOTABLE SCRATCHES
- The only notable scratch for the preliminary session comes from Puerto Rico’s Kristen Romano, who is out of the women’s 400 IM after coming in with the sixth seed.
MEDEIROS, FRATUS LOOK TO MOVE UP ONE SPOT IN 50 FREE
Brazilian teammates Etiene Medeiros and Bruno Fratus will both be looking to improve upon the silver medals they won at the 2015 Games in the 50 freestyle.
Medeiros, who picked up an individual bronze last night in the 100 back to give her three medals here in Lima, won silver in Toronto four years ago in what was a South American Record time of 24.55.
She has since lowered it to 24.45 and may need to be close to the mark to win with Americans Margo Geer and Madison Kennedy being her biggest challengers.
For Fratus, he’s looking for his first individual gold medal at the Pan Am Games after taking back-to-back silvers in the 50 free.
In 2011 he was second behind countryman Cesar Cielo by about half a second, and then in 2015, he lost out to American Josh Schneider by 0.05.
He’s certainly the favorite this year, and has a realistic shot to break Cielo’s Games Record of 21.58.
The 30-year-old owns a total of four relay gold medals from the Pan Am Games, including one this year in the men’s 4×100 free.
WOMEN’S 400 IM COULD BE CANADA’S BEST CHANCE FOR GOLD
With Canada yet to strike gold here in Lima with only two days remaining, the women’s 400 IM signals one of their best chances to do so.
Tessa Cieplucha is the top seed in a time of 4:38.96, and #4 ranked Mary-Sophie Harvey has been as fast as 4:36.48 (although she hasn’t been better than 4:43.40 since the start of 2018).
Mariah Denigan and Allie Szekely of the U.S. pose the biggest threat to the Canadians.
ALMEIDA EYES DOUBLE IN MEN’S MEDLEY
The men’s 400 IM shapes up to be a battle between defending champion Brandonn Almeida of Brazil and Americans Charlie Swanson and Gunnar Bentz.
Almeida was about two seconds off his best time in the 200 back earlier in the meet and based off what he swam at the World Championships in this event (4:15.92), it could be a very close race between the three. He has been as fast as 4:12.49 but that’s from back in 2016.
Neither Swanson or Bentz have had an individual event yet in Lima.
Which male 4imer has best LTB?
Bentz – 4:11.66. But only 4:15.33 last summer.
Thanks But coming off a broken collarbone. I will put my money on Bentz. Probably best bet to get some funding