Guilherme Costa Breaks South American Record In 800 Free

2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

In the finals of the men’s 800 free at the 2022 FINA World Championships, Brazilian swimmer Guilherme Costa finished fifth in a time of 7:45.48, beating out his old South American record mark of 7:46.09 set at the prelims of the Tokyo Olympic Games last year.

This is Costa’s second continental record of this meet, as he previously broke his own South American record in the men’s 400 free en route to taking bronze in the race with a time of 3:43.31. The bronze was Costa’s first medal from a World Championships or Olympic Games.

Top 5 South American Performers, Men’s 800 Free:

  1. Guilherme Costa, Brazil – 7:45.48 (2022)
  2. Alfonso Mestre, Venezuela – 7:50.81 (2021)
  3. Miguel Leite Valente, Brazil – 7:55.73 (2019)
  4. Martin Naidich, Argentina – 7:57.70 (2013)
  5. Stephan Stevernik, Brazil – 7:57.70 (2022)

Costa took his swim out extremely fast, even being under world record pace in the beginning portion of his race. However, he ended up fading after the 200-meter mark, but was still fast enough to end up in fifth. This is an improvement from his last-place finish in the Tokyo finals in a time of 7:53.31, adding over six seconds from his prelims time. This year, he went 7:46.90 in prelims and went to drop 1.42 in finals.

Splits Comparison:

Guilherme Costa, 2022 World Championships (New South American Record) Guilherme Costa, 2021 Olympic Games (Old South American Record)
50m 26.75 26.84
100m 27.85 28.41
150m 28.90 28.92
200m 29.07 28.92
250m 29.53 29.22
300m 29.60 29.27
350m 29.66 29.73
400m 29.51 29.37
450m 29.61 29.64
500m 29.36 29.32
550m 29.69 29.80
600m 29.56 29.75
650m 29.69 30.03
700m 29.53 29.65
750m 29.17 29.48
800m 28.00 27.74
T0tal 7:45.48 7:46.09

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Bolsonaro Rei do Mundo
2 years ago

He can already be considered the best long-distance swimmer in the history of South America. He will completely surpass Tetsuo Okamoto and Djan Madruga, just need an Olympic medal to clear any doubts about that.

About Yanyan Li

Yanyan Li

Although Yanyan wasn't the greatest competitive swimmer, she learned more about the sport of swimming by being her high school swim team's manager for four years. She eventually ventured into the realm of writing and joined SwimSwam in January 2022, where she hopes to contribute to and learn more about …

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