Brazil’s long course national championships – known as the Maria Lenk Trophy – is in its 6th and penultimate day in Rio de Janeiro, and two more swims qualified for Junior Worlds out of the preliminary heats. Rafaela Raurich of Curitibano Club added the 400 free to her slate (she already had the qualifying time for the 200 free) and Caio Pumputis of Pinheiros punched his first ticket with a 200 IM of 2:04.05.
Pumputis swam the sixth-fastest 200 IM of the morning, but was exhibitioning the event so he will not be back to finals. As of now, the only Brazilian with a qualifying time for Kazan in the 200 IM is Thiago Pereira, but he did not swim the event here; his time (1:57.23) dates from December 2014. Henrique Rodrigues of Pinheiros led the field with 2:01.80. Four finalists were sub-2:04s: Lucas Salatta of Corinthians (2:03.02), Gabriel Maruyama of Pinheiros (2:03.13), Thiago Teixeira Simon of Corinthians (2:03.26), and Fernando Souza Da of Fiat Minas (2:03.82).
In the women’s event, Joanna Maranhão of Pinheiros led the morning session with a 2:16.92. Maranhão has already achieved the cut for Kazan this year with 2:13.40. Gabriele Gonçalves, who has the Junior Worlds cut already (with 2:17.05) went through sixth in 2:20.98.
In the 50 fly, although they are still about a second off the Kazan mark, three women qualified for the final with sub-27s: Caroline Lemos of Cornithians (26.80), Daynara Ferreira of SESI-SP (26.85), and Daiene Dias of Fiat Minas (26.91).
Cesar Cielo of Fiat Minas qualified second (23.65) behind Nicholas dos Santos of Unisanta (23.62). Cielo leads the world so far this year in the 50 fly with a 23.28 from the Metropolitan Belo Horizonte in March. Both Cielo and Santos have already been under the Kazan mark, with 22.91 and 23.01, respectively. In a post-race interview, Cielo said he hoped to go 22 in finals tonight.
2014-2015 LCM Men 50 Fly
MANAUDOU
22.84
| 2 | Nicholas DOS SANTOS | BRA | 22.90 | 04/10 |
| 3 | Laszlo CSEH | HUN | 23.06 | 08/02 |
| 4 | Konrad CZERNIAK | POL | 23.07 | 08/02 |
| 5 | Cesar Cielo | BRA | 23.11 | 04/10 |
The top three women in the 400 free all qualified with 4:16s to make the “A” final. Viviane Eichelberger from GNU led the way with 4:16.10, followed by Manuelle Lyrio of Pinheiros (4:16.37) and Carolina Bilich of Fiat Minas (4:16.84). Raurich’s 4:19.86 was the ninth-fastest time overall, so she will be in lane 4 for the “B” final. Another potential Junior Worlds qualifier, Maria Paula Heitmann, of Fiat Minas, also qualified for the “B” final with 4:21.18.
Not competing in today’s 400 free was Brazil’s top Junior Worlds qualifier, Gabi Roncatto of Pinheiros, who went 4:19.71 in 2014.
Brazilian record-holder Leonardo de Deus of Corinthians put up the fourth-fastest time of the morning; going 3:57.45. Luiz Altamir of Flamengo led the field in 3:56.38. De Deus told reporters he was conserving energy in the morning with the aim of swimming a 3:50 in finals, keeping the South American record of 3:50.01 in the corner of his eye.
Brazilian record-holder Etiene Medeiros of SESI-SP was the fastest 50 backstroker in prelims, clocking a 28.01. Unisanta’s Andrea Berrino dropped 2.5 seconds to qualify second with 28.98, while Roberta Albino of Fiat Minas was third, also with a best time (29.70).
The men’s record-holder, Daniel Orzechowski of Pinheiros, was also the fastest qualifier through to finals. His time of 25.26 was only .24 off his seed time; the national record of 24.44 dates back to 2012. The next seven qualifiers ranged between 25.44 and 25.86, and 25.89 led the “B” final qualifiers.
