Alabama Snags Verbal from Brazil National Junior Teamer Bernardo Bondra

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Bernardo Bondra de Almeida, who hails from São Paulo, Brazil and swims for Tiago Moreno at Esporte Clube Pinheiros, has announced his intention to swim at the University of Alabama next fall. Bondra will join Blake Peeples, Eric Stelmar, Matt King, and Trey Sheils in the Alabama class of 2024.

“I’m happy to announce my verbal commitment to further my athletic and academic career at University of Alabama. I would like to thank my family and coaches that help me get here. Thank you to the  University of Alabama and coach Coley Stickels that gave me the opportunity to continue improving as a student and an athlete at a high level university. Roll Tide!!”

Bondra represented Brazil at the 2019 FINA Junior World Championships. He came in 5th in the 100 fly, 7th in the 50 fly, 5th in the 4×100 free relay and 6th in the 4×100 medley relay. Bondra finished 2019 with the 8th-fastest 50m fly time (23.75) and the 11th-fastest 100m fly time (52.37) in the world for 18-and-unders. He had quite a progression in the 100 fly this year. After wrapping up 2018 with a personal-best 54.75, he qualified for Junior Worlds with a 53.74 at 2019 Brazil Trophy, Brazil’s national championships, in April. In Budapest, he swam 53.03 in heats to move to semi-finals with the 10th time. He finished 7th in semis with 52.73, then moved up to 5th in finals with 52.37. He also cracked 50 for the first time in the 100m free with relay splits of 49 in both heats and finals.

Bondra’s converted 100 fly time would have been Alabama’s fastest (Zane Waddell went 46.33, Knox Auerbach went 46.60, and Laurent Bams went 46.97 in 2018-19). A 45.9 would have put him 24th in prelims at 2019 NCAA Men’s Championships. It also would have been .42 faster than Auerbach’s split on the 9th-place 400 medley relay. His converted 50 flat-start time of 20.76 would have been just off Auerbach’s 20.39 split on the NCAA-champion 200 medley relay.

Top LCM times (converted to SCY):

• 50 fly – 23.75 (20.76)
• 100 fly – 52.37 (45.91)
• 100 free (relay split) – 49.65 (43.28)

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