The final two days of competition at the Brazil Junior Champs saw ten more meet records fall. That came on the heels of multiple meet records and even one South American record broken on the first two days.
The meet was divided into two categories: Junior-1, for 17-year-olds, and Junior-2, which houses 18- and 19-year-olds, the last category before those swimmers are classified as “senior” at age 20 under the Brazilian system.
On day three, last Friday, three swimmers appeared set for a big-time 100 free battle in Junior-1 coming out of prelims, but Matheus Santana tore those predictions to pieces, blowing away the field in a meet record and lifetime-best 49.49, the best time for a 17-year-old in Brazilian history. Gabriel da Silva Santos took second in 50.72 and Guilherme Ocampo was just behind in 50.75 – he’s had a great meet, coming into the weekend with a lifetime-best of just 52.01.
Natalia de Luccas, fresh off her South American record in the 200 back, set a new meet record in the 100 free Junior-1, going 56.45. Her Corinthians teammate Pamela Alencar Souza won the 200 breast Junior-2 in a meet record 2:34.81.
Andrea Mickosz broke a meet record in the boys 200 breast Junior-1, going 2:16.73, and in the girls 400 free Junior-2 Carolina Bilich went 4:17.30 for a new meet record of her own.
This year’s meet featured 4×50 Mixed Medley relays in both categories for the first time, meaning both winners set new meet records by default. Corinthians won the Junior-1 relay in 1:50.59 thanks to Guilherme Ocampo going 22.18 on the freestyle leg. In Junior-2, Pinheiros took the win and meet record, going 1:47.25 and getting a huge 27.38 breaststroke leg from Pedro Cardona.
On the final day of competition, three more records fell. Matheus Santana came back from his 100 free blowout to win the 50 free Junior-1 in a meet record 22.55. Pedro Cardona showed that his monster split from the night before wasn’t a fluke by winning the 100 breast and going 1:01.82 in the Junior-2 category. He also helped his Pinheiros team to the 400 medley relay record of 3:44.89 at Junior-1.
The meet ended with awards, where Natalia de Luccas and Matheus Santana were honored as the top overall swimmers in Junior-1. De Luccas scored 96 points and Santana 54. In Junior-2, the winners were Carolina Bilich (64 points) and Gabriel Ogawa (32 points).
The top performances awards went to the best single-event performances of the meet. Santana took the boys Junior-1 award with his 100 freestyle, which graded out at 930 points. De Luccas took home another award, with her 933-point 100 back winning the girls Junior-1 category. Bilich won again in girls Junior-2 with her 400 free (907 points) and Pedro Cardona was the boys Junior-2 champ thanks to his 100 breast (926 points).
Corinthians won the team title, scoring 695 points overall, just ahead of Pinheiros’ 658.5 and Minas finished third with 347.
D’Artagnan R. Dias contributed to this report.
And Santana said that he is “saving something” good for the Open champs.. so a 48 is not out of question..
Cielo/Santana/Chierighini/Oliveira for the free relay in Rio? Perhaps De Lucca in the conversation too?
Bobo.. Maybe Fratus will start swimming 100 free too now he is on Auburn..
And Santana is breaking Cielo Records.. but Santana “records” are are already being erased easily by Felipe Ribeiro.
You’re right. I had forgotten Fratus.
Yeah, Ribeiro is only 15 and already 51.19 in LCM.The fact he is training partner of Santana makes some diference too.
Some of them(like Carolina Bilich and Luiz Altamir) didn t swim rested, because next week they will swim in Open Tournament that qualifies for PanPacs and South American Championships.