Felipe Franca blasts 27.2 in 50 breast to open Brazilian Winter Champs

The Brazilian Winter Championships kicked off today in Rio de Janeiro, with some of Brazil’s best senior swimmers and many of its best juniors joining the competition.

Corinthians’ Felipe Franca was the headliner of the first day, jumping to 3rd overall in our 2014 World Ranks by winning the 50 breaststroke in 27.27.

He had to fight hard for that win, as Joao Luiz Gomes Junior went 27.35 for second place. Gomes also cracked the top 5 – he’ll check in at 5th.

Franca move ahead of Scotland’s Ross Murdoch for the number-3 spot, trailing only the dynamic duo of Aussie Christian Sprenger and South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh.

Five championships records went down, perhaps the most impressive being Miguel Leite Valente‘s 1500 free. The Minas swimmer cut more than 12 seconds off his time from the Maria Lenk Trophy (which he also won), going 15:16.07.

In the women’s 100 back, Etiene Medeiros broke a championships record in 1:02.15, and in the men’s race, Fabio Santi equaled that feat with his 54.42.

Both winning 4×50 free relays broke meet records as well. SESI won the women’s event with a 1:42.45, just beating out Pinheiros. Minas won the men’s race in 1:29.54.

Daynara De Paula ran away with the women’s 50 fly to open the meet, going 26.68 to win by half a second. Felipe Martins won for the men with a 24.38, a narrow win over Felipe Nunes (24.49).

Pinheiros’s Ana Carla Cavalho took the women’s 50 breast in 31.90, and the final individual senior win went to Julia Gerotto of Corinthians in the 800 free. Gerotto went 8:53.81.

8 Junior championship records fell as well. The junior swimmers are divided into two categories, Junior-1 (born in 1997, rougly 17 & under) and Junior-2 (born in 1995 and 1996 roughly 18-19). The records are listed below:

• Natalia de Luccas, 100 back Junior-2, 1:02.61
• Vitor Guaraldo, 100 back Junior-2, 55.64
• Bruna Veronez, 800 free Junior-1, 8:47.38
• Carolina Bilich, 800 free Junior-2, 8:46.42
• Brandon Almeida, 1500 free Junior-1, 15:39.04
• Luiz Gustavo Barros, 1500 free Junior-2, 15:29.34
• SESI, girls 4×50 free relay Junior-1, 1:46.44
• Pinheiros, girls 4×50 free relay Junior-2, 1:44.69

You can find senior results here and junior results here. The meet continues through Saturday.

D’Artagnan Dias contributed to this report.