The 2013 edition of the Maria Lenk Trophy will begin tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro. This year’s meet will be one of the two competitions where Brazilian athletes can qualify for the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona, the other being Brazilian Curitiba, which starts on May 14th.
As always this competition is an extremely heated battle between the top teams in Brazil. In this year’s event there will be 34 teams and 338 athletes competing. The number of participants in the meet is low compared to years past. A very comprehensive look at the statistics of the competition make up can be found here.
Each team is allowed two international athletes to compete on their roster. Unlike most years this year’s contingent of international athletes is very small with only eight competing.
The list of foreigners competing are:
Inge Dekker (Netherlands), Femke Heemskerk (Netherlands), Juan Pereyra (Argentina), Julia Sebastian (Argentina), Virginia Bardach (Argentina), Esteban Enderica (Ecuador), Samantha Salinas (Ecuador) and Florencia Perotti (Argentina)
There will also be a number of athletes who are training in the United States who will be absent from this year’s event including:
Thiago Parravicini, Tamires Nascimento, Ana Carolina Azambuja, Heitor Rodrigues and Lucas Gerotto
The event heat sheet can be found here
No Rematch for Chierighini and De Lucca
After watching Marcelo Chierighini and Joao De Lucca finish second and third (behind Vlad Morozov) in the 100 yard freestyle at the NCAA Championships we will be deprived of a rematch between the two because of De Lucca’s status for the meet.
De Lucca, who wanted to represent the team where he first found success on the national stage, Marina Barra Clube, cannot because of a late request in the transfer process he will have to swim under observation.
Swimming under observation means that De Lucca will not be able to compete in the finals of the competition, but his times will be considered for national team qualification.
Both Cesar Cielo and Thiago Pereira just made the deadline in the same transfer process.
De Lucca, who competes for the Louisville Cardinals, is coming off a fantastic NCAA championship competition where he won the 200 yard freestyle in a time of 1:31.51.
Chierighini, who competes for Auburn, also had an impressive NCAA championship meet where he finished second to Vlad Morozov in both the 50 and 100 freestyle.
Cesar Cielo to Swim a Light Schedule
Cesar Cielo will be swimming a very light schedule at this year’s Maria Lenk, choosing to enter only the 50 freestyle and 50 butterfly events. Cielo will be representing Clube de Campo de Piracicaba, the team he grew up swimming for.
The 50 freestyle should be a great showdown between Cielo, Bruno Fratus who has already swum under 22 seconds this year posting a 21.92 in February, Chierighini and Nicholas Santos.
As stated earlier if Cielo decides that he would like the opportunity to swim the 100 freestyle and be part of the 4 x 100 freestyle relay in Barcelona he can do so by qualifying at the Brazilian Curitiba in May.
Thiago Pereira Not Quite Finished with the 400 IM
Olympic silver medalist in the 400 IM Thiago Pereira will be swimming the 400 IM, this is despite stating that he was finished with the event after the Olympics. This is fairly reminiscent of hearing Michael Phelps say the same thing after he finished the 400 IM in Bejing.
Pereira will also be competing in the 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly and the 200 IM.
On Blog do Coach Alex Pussieldi handicaps the team competition as follows:
1. Campeão Minas
2. Pinheiros
3. Corinthians
4. Unisanta
5. SESI
6. Fluminense
7. Grêmio Náutico União
8. Botafogo
9. Curitibano
10. Flamengo
Some notes:
-Fratus is coming from a shoulder injury.He will not be at his best.
-With DeLucca swimming only prelims, 200free prelim time will be probably light years faster than finals(a very weak event in Brazil).SouthAmerican record(1.46.57 by Thiago Pereira in 2009) will be in jeopardy.
-No one knows how good Cielo shape will be.He still has some issues from his surgery.
-Felipe França da Silva is awfully quiet this year…
When someone (Cielo) doesn’t enter the 100 free, does that tell anyone else that he is not very fit?
You must remember it was 100 free training that messed Cielo knees.A lot more metrage(yardage) and turns than pure sprint training.
I think is BOTH:He is not at his best, and he wants to avoid more damage than already is done.
Weirdo, also this is not the only qual event.. Winter Championship will also count for Worlds.. he will probably swim the 100 free there.. but I would bet for relay reasons only (Depending on how good De Lucca Chiereguinni and someones else times be)