Brazilian distance star Guilherme Costa unleashed a personal best short course 800m free in an unofficial time trial at practice yesterday. Costa finished the swim in 7:39.84, blowing away his previous best mark. Costa, a 21-year-old, had a previous best time of 7:45.29, which he swam back at the 2018 Jose Finkel meet. Costa’s time was well under the official South American Record of 7:42.79, held by Miguel Valente from 2016.
If it had been an official time trial, Costa’s time would have ranked him 10th in the world this year. Henrik Christiansen of Norway holds the top spot in the world with the only sub-7:30 performance – 7:29.39. Guilherme posted this video on his instagram page talking about his swim: (note: this video is in Portuguese)
Costa has been a rising star on the international men’s distance stage for the past two years or so. His first major international meet was the 2018 Pan Pacs, where he recorded 4th place finishes in the 800 free, 1500 free, and with Brazil’s 4×200 free relay. At the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Costa had a relatively off meet, finishing 21st in the 800 free, and 25th in the 1500. A few weeks later, however, Costa won his first major international title by taking Gold at the 2019 Pan American Games in the 1500. He also took home titles at the 2019 US Open in the men’s 400 free, 800 free, and 1500 free, breaking the LCM South American Records in all 3 events.
I thought the Australian , Winnington, won the 400 at the US Open . Must have been the 200 . Congrats to Costa though.
That was at US Nationals.
Townley Haas won the 200. Winnington didn’t swim at the US Open (the meet formerly known as “Winter Nationals”.) You’re probably thinking of the summer 2019 US National Championships, which were an open meet, but not the “US Open” (I know, complicated naming scheme), where Winnington won both the 200 and 400 free.
Thanks for clarifying 👍🏼
That’s it, call Joe Schooling!!!