Brazilian Trials Day 2 Prelims: Conceicao Posts Lifetime Best 100 Breast

2021 BRAZILIAN OLYMPIC TRIALS

• Monday, April 19th – Saturday, April 24th
• Prelims at 9:30 am local; Finals at 6:30 pm local
• Long Course Meters (50 meters), prelims/finals
• Brazilian Olympic Selection Policy
• Meet Site
• Heat Sheets
• Prelims Schedule
• Finals Schedule
• Live Results
• Day 1 Recap

The 2021 Brazilian Olympic Trials continued on day 2 with the women’s 100 back, men’s 200 free, women’s 100 breast, men’s 100 back, and women’s 400 free. These swimmers will need to finish in the top 2 at finals tonight, with a time under the Fina ‘A’ cut in order to make Brazil’s Olympic Roster.

Jhennifer Conceicao could not wait for the finals session to drop a lifetime best time, and new Brazilian National Record. She dropped one-third of a second off her previous best from June 2019, which was the previous National Record, to earn the top spot going into tonight’s 100 breast final (1:07.35). She is going to need to repeat that feat in order to meet the FINA A cut of 1:07.07.  Bruna Leme snagged 2nd, being the only other swimmer to break 1:10.00 with a personal best time of 1:09.99.

Conceicao qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics as part of Brazil’s 4×100 medley relay which finished in 13th place. She also earned 5th place in the individual 100 breast at the 2019 Pan American Games.

Brazilian National Record-holder Guilherme Guido and Gabriel Fantoni were neck-and-neck in the men’s 100 back, with Guido taking the top finals spot with a time of 54.74, .07 ahead of Fantoni. This was a really solid swim for Fantoni who came into this meet with a seed time of 54.13, but we can expect Guido to pick up the pace in finals since he was nearly 2 seconds off his seed time. 34-year-old Guido finished in 14th place in this event at the 2016 Olympics and Fantoni has four-peated in this event at the Big Ten Championships for Indiana.

There is a 2 second gap between Fantoni and the rest of the field, but someone else to watch out for will be Guilherme Dias Masse whose seed time is just .11 slower than Fantoni’s. Massé finished 4th in prelims.  (56.52). They will need to break 54.00 to secure the FINA A cut (53.85), which Fantoni and Guido have both done before.

Breno Correia posted the fastest time in the men’s 200 free (1:47.53), about half-a-second off the Fina A cut of 1:47.02. It is shaping up to be an exciting finals race with seeds 2,3, and 4 all within .08 of each other. In this mix is Fernando Scheffer who has the fastest seed time by nearly a second (1:45.83), although he touched the wall in 3rd place at 1:48.11 this morning. Scheffer won gold in this event at the 2019 Pan American Games where Correia took silver.

Going into the finals, Felipe Souza is in 2nd (1:48.08) and 18-year-old Murilo Sartori is ranked 4th (1:48.16).

The women’s 400 free looks to be anyone’s race tonight, with the top 6 swimmers finishing within 2 seconds of each other. Gabrielle Gonçalves led the field this morning as the only swimmer to crack 4:16.00 with a time of 4:15.96. She already demonstrated her endurance in the 400IM last night, winning the event by more than 2 seconds, but missing the FINA A cut.

The dark horse of this finals race might be Aline da Silva Rodrigues who finished in 5th this morning, despite having the fastest seed time by 4 seconds (4:10.88). She posted that time in December 2019 at the U.S. National Championships. But, everyone will have to swim considerably faster in the finals to reach the FINA A cut of 4:07.90.

Etiene Medeiros dominated the four-woman heat of the 100 backstroke, touching the wall 1st with a time of 1:02.45 with a 1.5 second lead over the field. This wasn’t a particularly fast time for Medeiros who was entered with a 1:00.13, .12 under the FINA ‘A’ cut. Her lifetime best stands at 59.61 which she posted at the 2015 Pan American Games. In 2nd was Natalia de Lucca (1:03.93) who will have to drop more than one second from her lifetime best to crack the FINA ‘A’ cut time tonight.