Brazil’s rising star, Brandonn Almeida, is making a trek across the Atlantic to spend some training time with newly-minted 1500m World Record Holder, Gregorio Paltrinieri.
Blog do Coach is reporting that Almeida will be departing for Paltrinieri’s training home of Italy tomorrow, January 17th, and plans on spending 2 weeks under the guidance of Coach Stefano Morini.
At just 18 years old, Almeida is one of Brazil’s brightest stars, having blown away the men’s 400m IM field at last summer’s Pan American Games. Almeida scored a new Junior World Record en route to earning gold in Toronto.
At the World Junior Championships later last summer in Singapore, Almeida settled for silver in the 400m IM, but raced his way to a Junior World title in the 1500m freestyle, the same event that blasted Paltrinieri to stardom last year.
Paltrinieri won his first-ever long course international gold medal in the event, breaking the European Record at the 2015 FINA World Championships. The Italian followed that performance up with a huge new World Record at the European Short Course Championships last month in Netanya, Israel.
As for Morini, Paltrinieri’s coach was named Italy’s Coach of the Year in 2015, his 2nd consecutive year receiving the award.
After his two-week stint in Italy, Almeida will be traveling to Flagstaff, Arizona for an altitude camp.
1500 free will be brandonn focus for April trials so it’s a smart move from him