Brazil’s Manuella Lyrio set a new South American record in the women’s 200 free this morning during preliminaries of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Swimming in the final heat of the event, Lyrio swam a 1:57.28, a time that ranked 14th for the morning and will secure her a spot in tonight’s semi-finals.
The continental record previously belonged to Lyrio’s teammate Larissa Oliveira, who swam a 1:57.37 a few months ago the 2016 Maria Lenk meet. That meet served as a qualifying meet for Brazil’s Olympic team and a test event for the Olympic pool.
Lyrio’s seed time coming into today was a 1:58.03. She actually swam this morning in the lane next to Oliveira, who swam in 2:00.76, over three seconds slower than her seed time.
Comparative Splits:
Old record: 27.55/30.10/30.07/29.65
New record: 27.05/29.66/30.16/30.81
Compared to Oliveira’s record swim, Lyrio pushed the front half more, splitting almost a second ahead of the old record at the 100m mark.
Oliveira still holds the South American record in the 100 free (54.03), as well as the 4×100 and 4×200 freestyle relay events. She’s slated to swim the 100 free later on this week.
Both women swam on Brazil’s 4×100 free relay on Saturday, which finished 11th in prelims.
