Argentine and Mexican National Records Fall On Day Two Of Junior Pan American Games

2025 Junior Pan American Games – Swimming

• August 10-14, 2025
• Olympic Aquatic Centre, Luque, Asuncion, Paraguay
• Long Course Meters (50 meters)
• Live Results on the “Asuncion 2025” app
• Results PDFs: Day 1 | Day 2

Day two of the Junior Pan American Games continued in the same way as day one with a lot of fast swimming despite the absence of the United States and Canada.

Brazil won most of the events, but the highlights of the day came in the men’s and women’s 200 backstroke events where both champions set new National Records en route to their gold medals.

Argentina’s Malena Santillan, 17, won the women’s event, touching in 2:10.36 to shatter her own National Record in the event by almost two seconds. The previous record stood at 2:12.28 from March of 2024.

Argentina did not have any athletes in the event at the World Championships earlier this month, but Santillan’s time would have been 17th in the prelims, just one-hundredth out of a semifinals position.

The men’s 200 back went to Mexico’s Humberto Najera, 20, in a time of 1:57.44. This time was two tenths faster than the 1:57.76 mark he set in May of this year at the Acropolis Swim Open. Najera, who swims college for Cal,  did swim the event at the World Championships, where he finished 25th in 1:58.65. His time on day two would have jumped him up four places to 21st.

The rest of the events on day two went to Brazilian swimmers. Lucio Flavio Filho won the men’s 100 fly with a time of 51.78. This will make him the 7th fastest Brazilian in history in the event, coming in just ahead of Gui Caribe’s 51.86 from April of this year. He is just over seven tenths behind the National Record of 51.02 set by Gabriel Mangabeira in 2009.

Brazil also won the final event, the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay. Gui Caribe, who swims collegiately for Tennessee, led them off in 48.50, one of three 48 second splits in the field. He handed off to Pedro Sansone, who split 49.96 on the 2nd leg. Beatriz Bezerra was 3rd in 55.96 and Michigan swimmer Stephanie Balduccini anchored the relay in 54.93. Balduccini split the only women’s 54 in the field.

The other 48 second splits came from Caribe’s Tennessee teammate Lamar Taylor, and Mexico’s Andres Dupont. Taylor was 48.86 on the 2nd leg of the Bahamas relay that finished 6th overall. Dupont, who swims for Stanford, had the fastest split in the field at 48.19 in the 2nd position on their bronze medal relay.

Brazil’s anchor Balduccini took 1st the women’s 200 freestyle in 1:58.83. This was just over a second slower than she swam at Worlds, where she finished 13th in 1:57.87.

Other Event Winners

• Stephan Steverink won the men’s 200 freestyle for Brazil in 1:47.23. He came in about seven tenths ahead of 2nd place finisher Eduardo Cisternas, from Chile, who touched in 1:47.99. They were the only swimmers under 1:50 in the event.
• Joice Otero Rocha took the women’s 100 butterfly gold in 59.70, one tenth ahead of Brazilian teammate Beatriz Bezerra who swam 59.82 for the silver.

Medals Table After Day 2