The Summer Youth Championships, or the Carlos Campos Sobrinho Trophy, kicked off on Wednesday in Joao Pessoa, Paraiba, and three new Championship Records were broken.
The onslaught began with a new 200 back record from Corinthians’ Beatriz Lima e Silva, who swam 2:15.39 in long course meters – a new lifetime best by two-and-a-half seconds. That makes Beatriz the third-fastest Brazilian woman of any age in 2015 in the event.
The Championship event, for swimmers born in 1999 (juvenil2) and 2000 (juvenil1) continued the ongoing narrative of the rise of female swimming in a country where the international success has come mostly for the men historically.
Silva is on the older end of that age bracket, but on the younger end was 15-year old Maria Luiza Pessanha do Marino, who broke the Meet Record in the same event. She was out a full second faster than Silva on Wednesday, who incidentally was the old record holder in this event; Marino wound up in 2:16.75: two-and-a-half seconds better than Silva’s old mark.
The third and final record of the day came in the juvenil1 – 15 year olds – 800 free, where Rafaela Raurich swam an 8:55.76 to break Ana Marcela Cunha’s 2007 record of 8:57.73. Cunha has gone on to become one of the world’s best open water swimmers, and has won two of the last three World Championships over 25 kiklometers.
Full, live meet results available here.