D’Artagnan Dias contributed to this report.
The Jose Finkel Trophy in Brazil is on to its third day, which featured one of the country’s most dominant and iconic events, the 50 free. Olympic gold medalist Cesar Cielo was in attendance after a huge prelims swim where he nearly shattered the world record in the event.
Here’s how day three went down. Keep in mind that the meet is short course meters, and is Brazil’s selection meet for Short Course Worlds.
Day Three recap:
In the women’s 400IM, Florência Perotti (GNU) opened very strong, pulling well ahead of the field in the first 200 metres with a lead of more than 2 seconds from her nearest threat. But in the breast, her weakest stroke, the field closed in, and in the free leg, 1500 winner Samantha Arevalos (Fluminense), chased her down with a giant last 50 (30.61 to Perotti’s 31.44) to win with a 4:39.20 against Perroti’s 4:39.82. 16-year-old Gabrielle Roncatto (Pinheiros) got third with 4:42.18, a six second improvement of her best time before Finkel.
The men’s 400 IM was a one-team affair, with three Corinthians swimmers earning the top spots. Thiago Simon opened the first 100 in 56.50, 0.44 ahead of his teammate Evandro Silva. At the 200-meter mark, their other teammate, 1500 free winner Brandonn Almeida, closed in on Simon, coming from sixth to second, but Simon, the South American record-holder in the 200 breast, stormed away on that stroke. He finished his breaststroke in 3:08.22 against 3:11.96 from Silva and 3:14.48 from Almeida. It looked like it would end that way, but Almeida stormed home with a 56.01 free split to earn second at 4:10.49, leaving Silva in third with a 3:11.04. Simon was too far ahead to let Almeida’s big finish worry him much. Simon wound up going 4:06.38, making his third Worlds cut time in three events.
The women’s 50 free was a tight race till the turn, when Etiene Medeiros (SESI) and Dutch swimmer Femke Heemskerk (Fiat/Minas) jumped ahead of the field. Medeiros was slightly ahead of Heemskerk until the last two or three meters, but a superior finish gave Heemskerk the gold in 23.99, a new Championship Record. Medeiros was very happy with her second-place time (24:15) because that time is a new South American Record beating Flavia Delaroli’s super-suit record of 24:36 from 2009. Larissa Oliveira (Pinheiros) knocked Graciele Hermann (GNU) off the Doha team earning third place (and a World spot) with 24.41. Hermann made the Worlds cut in prelims but a bad turn in finals lost her the spot, as she finished in 24.49.
The men’s 50 free was a highly-anticipated race, but in the end, it became a race between one swimmer and the clock. Cesar Cielo (Fiat/Minas) opened very strong, using a big underwater off his start to break away from the field even before the turn. But a slow turn cost him a season-best, as he wound up going 20.73, a bit slower than his prelims swim. Cielo admitted after the race that he slowed his turn down because of worry about slipping on the wall – the pool is barely the legal 25 meters, and putting touchpads in at the far wall would make the pool too short and invalidate any records or World qualification times done at the meet. Because of that, there are no touchpads on the turn end of the pool, leading to a bit of a slippery surface.
SporTV commentator Alex Pussieldi also noted that the straight-arm throw by Cielo at the finish could have cost him even more time.
Second place went to Cielo’s teammate Italo Duarte in 21.42, and Bruno Fratus (Pinheiros) took third with a 21:46. Cielo and Fratus both qualified for the Doha World Champs, but Fratus (who was 21.40 in prelims) still doesn’t know if he’ll attend the Short Course World Champs or focus solely on long course instead.
The girls 800 free ended up more exciting than it started, with Carolina Bilich (Fiat/Minas) pulling away from the field at the beginning and leading for 775 meters. But Samantha Arevalos (Fluminense) increased her tempo around 700 and chased Bilich at the very end. With a better last 50 (30.18 to 31.07), Arevalos won her third gold with an 8:29.84, moving Bilich to second with an 8:30.12. Bruna Primati (SESI) got third with an 8:35.85.
The mens 4×200 relay was another great race. Minas led off strong with 200 free runner up Nicolas Oliveira in 1:43.79. Things stayed constant from there, with Minas leading, Corinthians in the second spot and Pinheiros in third till 600 meters when João De Lucca, winner of the individual 200free, jumped in the pool for Pinheiros. De Lucca closed in for the first 150 meters and stormed away with a final 50 split of 26.37. He passed Minas’s Miguel Valente (who closed in 28.47) to win for Pinheiros with a new South American Record of 7:01.93. Thiago Simon anchored well for Corinthians, earning the second spot in 7:02.45 to Minas’s third-place 7:03.86. The race was extremely fast, with all three teams beating the South American record from the 2006 Brazil team set at 706.09. Even the new record set by Pinheiros should go down easily when the top swimmers of each team combine along with a healthy Thiago Pereira at Worlds.
In the women’s 4×200 free relay, a three team battle emerged between SESI, Pinheiros and Minas. But on the third leg, Femke Heemskerk jumped in the pool for Minas and looked like a woman among girls. Minas had led the opening leg (Manuella Lyrio split 1:56.72), but fell to third, over two seconds behind the top two. The timing system malfunctioned on Heemskerk’s exact time, but SwimSwam’s South American correspondent D’Artagnan Dias tells us she turned that deficit into a five-meter lead by the time she handed off the anchor leg to Carolina Bilich. Minas won with a meet-record 7:52.49 and Pinheiros got second in 7:58.84, a new South American record. (Heemskerk, being from Europe, made Minas’s relay ineligible for the continental record). GNU took third with a 8:09.97.
SESI would have been second, but were disqualified for an early take-off on the second leg, nullifying their time of 7:56.19, which would have been second easily. The South American record (8:01.78 prior to the meet, now Pinheiros’s 7:58.84) should once again go down when Brazil combines its top swimmers come Worlds.
Brazilian swimming federation’s recap.
Team Scores after three days:
Possible New Textile best for França 100 breast – 56,25..