Brazilian Matheus Santana, who is recently-turned 18, has made the long-awaited breakthrough for fresh blood into Brazil’s senior ranks with his second-place finish in the 100 free at Maria Lenk.
His 48.61 put him behind champion Cesar Cielo (48.13) and re-broke his FINA Junior World Record set in prelims at 48.85.
Santana is the first to officially go under the ‘record standard’ of 48.97 that was based off of Caeleb Dressel’s Junior World Championships Record since FINA approved these Junior World Records to be broken on April 1.
Santana’s progression even in the last 24 hours has been impressive. He was a 49.0 in a relay leadoff on Friday, then dropped two tenths in prelims and two tenths again in finals.
Santana had a fantastic last 50, splitting 23.89-24.72. His last 50 was better than anybody else in the field, including the winner Cielo, and he made up almost a full second on Joao de Lucca (the 200 specialist) to take 2nd place.
De Lucca was 3rd in 48.67, and Nicolas Oliveira was 4th in 49.12.
A full recap of the final day of the 2014 Maria Lenk Trophy will be available at the conclusion of Saturday’s finals session.
Men’s 100 free
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw-5KVPYhNM
Now even without Cielo (who never swam relays prelims in 2011, 2012, 2013, resulting in failure to qualify to finals), Brazil can qualify to the relay final.
I think Brazil(with or without Cielo) should be doing training camps around the World to help the team know each other.Cielo gave Santana his phone and told him to call to “one try to beat each other” in training.Honestly, i think Cielo knows his ship has gone in 100free and now wants to polish 4x100free.
What are the goggles they wear. They are the type that correct head position, if I’m not mistaken.
Cielo looks a little wary in the pic, probably because of the young guns breathing down his neck.
A correction about Santana 50free:
Santana best 50free is 22:54 from last year, BUT he made 22:57 this year in B final ONLY 20 minutes after swimming 200free for UNISANTA relay in 149mid.
Another star on the rise!
A better pic from Santana.. http://sportv.globo.com/platb/files/1016/2014/04/photo.jpg
Relay Splits
Cielo (tired a lot) 48,36
De Lucca 48,27
Santana 48,29