Brazil Breaks South American Record in 4×100 Mixed Medley Relay

2021 BRAZILIAN OLYMPIC TRIALS

Day 7 of the 2021 Brazil Olympic Trials featured three time trials at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center: the women’s 4×100 free relay and the mixed  4×100 medley relay.

The mixed medley relay is making its Olympic debut in Tokyo this year, and Brazil’s Guilherme Basseto, Felipe Lima, Giovanna Diamante and Larissa Oliveira broke the 4×100 mixed medley South American Record with a time of 3:45.51.

Basseto lead off the mixed medley relay with a lifetime best 100 back split of 53.68, followed by 2019 World Championships silver medalist Lima who blasted a 100 breastroke time of 59.03. Diamante took on the 3rd leg, nearly matching Lima’s splits to the hundredth of a second, touching the wall with a 100 butterfly split of 59.11.  Oliveira anchored the relay in 53.70, bringing the relay home to a new South American Record.

Full splits:

  • Basseto – 25.58 / 28.10
  • Lima – 27.00 / 32.03
  • Diamante – 27.08 / 32.02
  • Oliviera – 25.75 / 27.95

Their final time of 3:45.51 could potentially qualify them for the Tokyo Olympic Games where the pool of 16 qualifying relays is pulled from the top 12 finishers at the recent World Championships, and the next four fastest relay swims during the qualification period which ends May 31st.

According to FINA’s rankings, Brazil just posted the second-fastest time this year, behind Moscow City, and third-fastest this season behind the People’s Republic of China who set the World Record in October 2020 and Moscow City.

In March 2021, Brazil put together a 4×100 mixed medley relay at the South American Swimming Championships that clocked a 3:56.83, ranking themselves 8th this year.

2016 Olympian Oliveira had two races on Saturday as she had started the session by leading off the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay with a 54.95. While she crushed this time in her second swim, the 4×100 mixed medley relay, it is important to note she had a flat start in the freestyle relay and the benefit of a relay start on her anchor medley leg.

Ana Carolina Vieira dove in second, posting a 100 freestyle split of 54.46. She was followed by 2016 Olympic finalist Etiene Medeiros (54.60) and anchor Stephanie Balduccini (54.58). They finished with a time of 3:38.59.

Full splits:

  • Oliveira – 26.25 / 28.70
  • Vieira – 25.84 / 28.62
  •  Medeiros – 25.64 / 28.96
  • Balduccini – 26.04 / 28.54

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HJones
2 years ago

I still don’t understand how this Mickey Mouse event is going to be part of the schedule, yet stroke 50’s arent??

Taa
Reply to  HJones
2 years ago

Its all a ruse so America can slip in 4 swimmers in prelims and then those 4 swimmers can go the rest of their career saying they are an Olympic medalist. Note USA probably expected it to be gold when the event was added but now its not as clear.

clocks
Reply to  Taa
2 years ago

its a pretty clear win for the US

Taa
Reply to  clocks
2 years ago

Better check who has the world record. right now. Also King, Dressel and Manuel are not “great” relay swimmers they tend to swim off their best times in a relay.

AnEn
2 years ago

South Africa and France should definitely be able to beat that time, not sure about Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, South Korea, Turkey, Spain, Ukraine and maybe some other countries.

Iain
2 years ago

FINA does keep track of mixed medley relay rankings
fina.org | Official FINA Website

Rafael
2 years ago

Annika I´ve been discussing the situation of the relays for OG, and a few countries who are on Top 12 of Top 4 out might now be able to send the relays becuase they don´t have all swimmer with a B Cut, the relay only spots they have are not enough or they don´t have enough swimmer with A Cut to be able to bypass this rule, that is true for countries like Poland, South Korea, Hong Kong. We might see a lot of changes on the actual qualified relays.

Will FINA Adress this issue only after the deadline for Individual times?

AnEn
Reply to  Rafael
2 years ago

I don’t think that there will be a problem for Poland, many of their swimmers have a B standard and wouldn’t have to be entered as relay-only swimmers.

Not sure about South Korea and Hong Kong. I think South Korea only qualified the women’s 800 free relay so far. One of their athletes has the B standard in the 200 free and maybe they could use someone with the B standard in the 400 free for the relay, so that they would only need 2 relay-only swimmers to have a relay? Hong Kong qualified in the women’s 400 free and 800 free relay. Haughey obviously has the A standard and both in the 50 free and the 400 free… Read more »

Rafael
Reply to  AnEn
2 years ago

The question is that all relay only swimmer must have a B standard on that event. So they cant use a B standard of 400 if The swimmer does not have B on 200

And on men site all is OK on women side lies The problem. I will find my data and write here

Last edited 2 years ago by Rafael
Rafael
Reply to  Rafael
2 years ago

Fina rule:
Each NOC may enter additional athletes for relays only (“Relay-Only Athletes”), provided that they have achieved at least the OST / “B” Time for the corresponding stroke and distance of the relay in which they are entered.  

Cases that the country might not be able to fill in all relays.

Hong Kong: Qualified in 400/800, have up to 4 relay only spots
A Standard: Haughey
400 free situation: 2 athletes with B Standard only
800 Free situation: Only 1 with B.
They have an A standard on back. at best they can have 1 relay if the use the backstroker
If they qualify the medley relay the might have a shot of… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by Rafael
Rafael
Reply to  Rafael
2 years ago

I Forgot Finland.

They have a shot at 400 medley, but only Hulko with A and no B on fly. So unless they find 1 more A or a B on fly and spots from the men side they are also out

Last edited 2 years ago by Rafael
Rafael
Reply to  AnEn
2 years ago

Also the B swimmers will only be chosen individually after the relays are defined and the universality spots.

and the B Swimmers are chosen based on Ranking so many of these countries the swimmer with B is not ranked high enough to be chosen for an individual spot

Rafael
2 years ago

The relay could be a tick faster if going Basseto, Jhenifer, Gonche and larissa

Giovanna leg was terrible.. and Jhenifer split 1:06 on the medley relay, Gonche could have gone 51 low-mid that would net a near 1 second faster overall time

nuotofan
Reply to  Rafael
2 years ago

Considering what swum in the individual races I think that the quartet’s choice was right. Felipe Lima swam 59.43, Jhennifer Conceicao swam (her PB in the semifinal, than she was much slower in the final) 1.07.35, so the difference is 7 seconds and 92 hundredths. Giovanna Diamante swam 59.03, Gonche 51.94 (again his PB), so the difference is 7 seconds and 9 hundredths. Obviously Diamante’s leg wasn’t scintillating but in her range of performance and there’s no certainty that Conceicao and Gonche would have been in the highest part of their range of performances, like you’re supposing.

Last edited 2 years ago by nuotofan
Nick
Reply to  nuotofan
2 years ago

Would be a shame if Conceicao doesn’t get on the team all because etiene went 2.5secs slower in her 100bk in the medley relay.

About Annika Johnson

Annika Johnson

Annika came into the sport competitively at age eight, following in the footsteps of her twin sister and older brother. The sibling rivalry was further fueled when all three began focusing on distance freestyle, forcing the family to buy two lap counters. Annika is a three-time Futures finalist in the 200 …

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