31-Year Old Guilherme Guido Breaks 2nd South American Record in 2 Days

2018 JOSE FINKEL TROPHY (BRAZIL’S SHORT COURSE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MEET)

• August 24th-28th, 2018
• Esporte Clube Pinheiros, Sao Paulo, Brazil
• 25m (SCM) pool
• Schedule
• Psych Sheet
• Live Steam + Race Videos
• Results

After breaking a South American Record in the 50 back on Sunday, Brazil’s Guilherme Guido did the same in the men’s 100 back final. There, he swam a 49.62, which shaved .01 seconds from his old record-setting time done in a rubber suit at the 2009 Singapore World Cup.

Guido remains the 11th-fastest performance in the history of the event. At 31-years old, he’s credited his performance to a new focus on nutrition over the last year.

But, if a 31-year old swimming best times is impressive, the story of 38-year old Nicholas Santos might take the cake. In the 50 fly final on Monday, he swam a 22.17, which was just .09 seconds from his own South American Record in the event.

That time qualified him for the 2018 World Championships, which will be his 8th Short Course World Championship meet since his first in 2002.

Santos’ performances at such an advanced age will always be questioned, given his involvement in a 2011 Brazilian doping scandal that wound up disqualifying him from the 2011 World Championships. Although a tainted substance was ruled to be responsible for the positive test, times from the meet at which Santos and 3 other Brazilians raced were nullified, which eliminated his qualifying time for that meet.

Vini Lanza, who won the 200 fly and qualified for Worlds on Sunday, and won the 200 IM and broke Thiago Pereira’s record a day earlier, was 2nd in the 50 fly in 22.76.

Nicholas Santos, Breno Correia, Luiz Altamir Lopes Melo and Guilherme Guido all achieved World Championship qualifying  standards on Monday: one of the more fruitful days of the 2018 Jose Finkel Trophy.

Other Day 4 Winners:

• 25-year old Larissa Oliveira broke her 2nd South American Record of the meet on Monday, winning the 200 free in 1:54.50. That coupled with an earlier record-setting swim in the 100 free (52.45), with the difference being her well-told dislike for swimming the 200 free. “Happy with another record. Those who know me know that I do not like swimming (the 200), but I talked to Flavia Delaroli before, and she told me some words that encouraged me a lot. It worked and I got that record, and that is very important.” The old record of 1:54.76 was set in 2016 by Manuella Lyrio, who was 2nd on Monday in 1:55.26.
• Etiene Medeiros, after undergoing shoulder surgery in January, won her 2nd event in as many days on Monday in the 100 back. Her time there was 5782, which was just three-tenths from her Meet Record set in 2014. She won the 50 back on Sunday as well.
• Flamengo mercenary Barbora Zavadova from the Czech Republic won the women’s 400 IM in 4:37.18, topping the top domestic swimmer, Gabrielle Goncalves, by 2 seconds. Most of that difference came on the front-half of the race, which is Zavadova’s specialty.
• Leonardo Santos won the men’s 400 IM in 4:06.26, just edging-out the country’s defending long course champion Brandonn Almeida, who took 2nd in 4:06.29. The race was a back-andforth battle, with Santos taking a big 2.5-second lead on the fly leg, Almeida clawing back in front on backstroke, Santos pulling two-tenths to the front on breaststroke, and Almeida taking a seemingly-insurmountable .7 second lead at the final turn. In that last 25 meters, though, Santos found enough to give the race a finish it deserved: he out-split his competitor by .68 seconds, which was just enough to win the title.
• Daiene Dias won the women’s 50 fly in 25.97.
• Luiz Altamir won the men’s 200 free in 1:42.59, which breaks the Meet Record in the event. Breno Correia took 2nd in 1:42.99, with both swimmers clearing the World Championship qualifying standard.