Olympic Medalist Fernando Scheffer Takes 200 Free At Brazilian Championships

2023 ABSOLUTE BRAZILIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, May 30th – Saturday, June 3rd
• Prelims at 9:30am local (8:30am EDT)/Finals at 6pm local (5pm EDT)
• Parque en Centro Esportivo Santos Dumont
• LCM (50m)
• World Championships Qualifier
• Meet Central
• CBDA World Championships Selection Criteria
• SwimSwam Preview
• Start List
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
• Live Results
• Livestream

We entered day four of the 2023 Brazilian Swimming Championships this evening, which means just one more day of competition remains.

During this penultimate finals session, Maria Costa qualified for her second individual event for this summer’s World Championships. Costa stopped the clock at 1:57.76 to top the women’s 200m free podium, dipping under the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut of 1:58.66 in the process.

Costa was the only racer to make the grade, as runner-up Stephanie Balduccini touched in 1:59.05 while Nathalia Almeida bagged bronze in 1:59.84. Gabrielle Roncatto posted 2:00.33 as the 4th-place finisher.

The women above did collectively clock a time good enough to qualify for the World Championships as a 4x200m freestyle relay squad, however.

The men’s 200m free saw Olympic medalist Fernando Scheffer score the victory at 1:46.28. He was the sole competitor to get under the 1:47.06 ‘A’ cut threshold, with runner-up Maurilo Sartori falling just .01 shy in a silver medal-worthy result of 1:47.06.

Luiz Melo rounded out the top 3 in 1:47.59 while Guilherme Da Costa clinched 4th place in 1:48.18.

As for 25-year-old Scheffer, he said of his performance, “I had not competed for a long time and we had a very long preparation for this competition, which I didn’t start very well. Today, the strategy was to put on the best swimming possible.”

Scheffer claimed bronze in the 2free in Tokyo, producing a final time there of 1:44.66, a South American Record. He missed the final at last year’s World Championships, however, settling for 9th place in Budapest with a time of 1:46.11.

The men’s 400m IM saw Stephan Steverink steal the spotlight from Pan American Games medalist Brandonn Almeida in tonight’s battle.

Steverink stopped the clock in a mark of 4:17.26 to qualify for Fukuoka, while Almeida came up short with a time of 4:19.56. The former owns a lifetime best of 4:16.44 in this event, an outing from last year that rendered him Brazil’s 3rd fastest performer in history.

Almeida’s PB rests at the 4:12.49 he logged back in 2016.

Additional Winners

• Gui Caribe followed up on his 100m free victory from last night with a win in the 50m fly. He checked in with gold in a mark of 23.67, just .01 ahead of Guilherme Rosolen‘s effort of 26.27. The men were hunting a CBDA-mandated QT of 22.79.
• Celine Bispo cleared the field in the women’s edition of the 50m fly, touching in 26.26.
• Jhennifer Conceicao hit a mark of 30.78 for the women’s 50m breast while 37-year-old Joao Gomes Junior got it done for the men in 26.75. The CBDA tine standards for Fukuoka rest at 29.91 and 26.66, respectively.
• Gabrielle Roncatto posted a winning time of 4:44.40 in the women’s 400m IM.