2024 WORLD AQUATIC CHAMPIONSHIPS
- February 11th – February 18th
- Doha, Qatar
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Official Entries
- Live Results (Omega)
- Day 5 Finals Live Recap
- Day 1 South America Recap
- Day 2 South America Recap
- Day 3 South America Recap
The Brazilian women’s 4×200 freestyle relay fell just short of the podium with a 4th-place finish in 7:52.71 on Thursday, but in the process they crushed their own South American record of 7:55.68 from the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Fresh off breaking the South American record in the 200 free individually, Maria Costa led off Brazil’s relay with a blistering 1:57.30. Costa took down Manuella Lyrio‘s continental standard of 1:57.28 from the Rio 2016 Olympics in the 200 free semifinals before lowering her mark to 1:56.85 en route to a 5th-place finish in the final.
Stephanie Balduccini, a 19-year-old University of Michigan freshman, dove into the water next after the 21-year-old Costa and kept Brazil’s momentum chugging along. Balduccini split 1:57.64, just a tenth of a second off her lifetime best (1:57.54) from the 2022 World Championships.
With Brazil sitting in 5th place at the midway point of the relay, the veteran duo of Aline Rodrigues (1:59.73) and Gabrielle Roncatto (1:58.04) helped the squad pass Great Britain on the back half. Roncatto, 25, was way faster than her (flat start) personal-best 1:59.22 from 2016, when she was just 17 years old. The 28-year-old Rodrigues, meanwhile, wasn’t far off her personal-best 1:59.14 from the 2021 Brazilian Olympic Trials.
Roncatto was more than two seconds faster than her 2:00.09 split from Brazil’s 4×200 free relay at the Rio 2016 Olympics, where the previous South American record was clocked. Lyrio led off that relay in 1:58.39 before Jessica Cavalheiro (1:59.05), Roncatto (2:00.09), and Larissa Oliveira (1:58.15) finished the job en route to 11th place in prelims.
Brazil’s 4×200 Free Relay, Splits Comparison
| New South American Record – 7:52.71 | Old Record From Rio 2016 – 7:55.68 |
| Maria Costa – 1:57.30 | Manuella Lyrio – 1:58.39 |
| Stephanie Balduccini – 1:57.64 | Jessica Cavalheiro – 1:59.05 |
| Aline Rodrigues – 1:59.73 | Gabrielle Roncatto – 2:00.09 |
| Gabrielle Roncatto – 1:58.04 | Larissa Oliveira – 1:58.15 |
Earlier this week, Brazil’s 4×100 free relay team placed 6th in 3:40.56, a few seconds behind the South American record of 3:37.39 from the 2015 Pan American Games.
Other Highlights From Day 5
- Before she helped Brazil’s 4×200 free relay establish a new South American record, Balduccini blasted a personal-best 100 free time of 54.07 to qualify for Friday’s final as the eighth seed. The Michigan freshman sliced .03 seconds off her previous-best 54.10 from the 2022 World Championships, where she placed 10th in the semifinals. Last year, Balduccini placed 13th (54.69) at Worlds in Fukuoka. It will be interesting to see whether we’ll also see her compete for Michigan at the Big Ten Championships next week.
Balduccini evolved quickly until she was 16 years old, but in 2023 she became stagnant. So she decided to go to the USA, and since she speaks fluent English as her first language, she must be feeling great. Balduccini has the potential to be a World and Olympic medalist, but she needs to complete her development in the USA. I believe that in the coming years she will start swimming the 100m in 53 seconds regularly and I hope she drops to 52 as well. Regarding the relay, it’s a shame that Brazil doesn’t have 4 swimmers for 1:57, if Larissa Oliveira had still been swimming, Brazil would have been a medalist, but she retired. In any case, women’s swimming… Read more »