Nicholas Santos Rockets To Another Sub-23 50 Fly In Brazil

2017 JOSE FINKEL TROPHY

• August 8th-12th, 2017
• Santos, Sao Paulo, Brazil – UNISANTA hosting
• 50 LCM pool
• Live results

The penultimate day of the 2017 Jose Finkel Trophy from Sao Paulo saw a continuation of impressive performances from some of Brazil’s best.

Among the highlights was Larissa Oliveira picking up her second title and third individual medal of the meet after enduring a car accident and surgery in March, Joanna Maranhao winning her third title in a decisive manner, and Brandonn Almeida put on a dominant performance in the men’s 400 IM. In the last individual event of the night, Nicholas Santos posted another scintillating sub-23 50 fly to close things out.

Brandonn Almeida. Trofeu Jose Finkel de Natacao, realizado na Unisanta. 11 de agosto de 2017, Santos, SP, Brasil. Foto: Satiro Sodré/SSPress/CBDA

The 400 IM started things off. Almeida sat 2nd after the fly leg, but a world class backstroke leg of 1:01.75 vaulted him to a nearly five second advantage. He only extended his lead from there, touching in 4:13.76 to register a new meet record.

The 20-year-old Brazilian was the 2015 Pan American champion in this event after national hero and continental record holder Thiago Pereira was controversially disqualified. He finished 7th at the World Championships in July in 4:13.00, and holds a best of 4:12.49 from November of last year.

Nearly ten seconds back, his Corinthians teammate Joao Martimbinaco touched 2nd in 4:23.09, with Leonardo Santos of Pinheiros 3rd in 4:23.63.

Oliveira then took to the pool in the 200 free. With a win in the 100 and a bronze in the 400 under her belt, this matched up as the perfect distance for the 24-year-old. She got out to the early lead, was pressured on the third 50, but came home faster than anyone to get the win in 2:00.41. 16-year-old Rafaela Raurich came in for silver in 2:01.24, and Maria Heitmann scooped up the bronze in 2:02.01.

The men’s event then saw GNU’s Fernando Scheffer power his way to the win in 1:48.61. Luiz Altamir had a small lead at the halfway mark, but Scheffer devastated him with a 27.41 third 50. Altamir would hang on for 2nd in 1:49.98, while Breno Correia‘s 27.17 last 50 wasn’t quite enough to catch Giovanny Lima (1:50.20) for the bronze, as he hit the wall in 1:50.26.

Swimming out of the B-final, 400m winner Giuliano Rocco uncorked a 1:49.35, a time that would’ve been good for silver. He was a bit too cautious in the prelims, missing the A-final by .05.

Joanna Maranhao. Trofeu Jose Finkel de Natacao, realizado na Unisanta. 11 de agosto de 2017, Santos, SP, Brasil. Foto: Satiro Sodré/SSPress/CBDA

Next up it was Maranhao, who was dominant early in the meet in both the 200 IM and 200 fly. She continued her reign over the distance in the 200 back, winning in 2:12.72 to narrowly miss Duane Da Rocha‘s meet record by just over two tenths. Gabriela Albuquerque (2:16.47) took 2nd.

The men’s 200 back saw Leonardo de Deus nab his second gold of the meet in a time of 1:58.60, while Nathan Bighetti won his third consecutive backstroke silver in 1:59.40. Guilherme Guido, who won both the 50 and 100, took 3rd in 2:01.39.

Finally it was the men’s 50 fly, where the veteran Santos went 22.97 for the win. After becoming the 2nd fastest performer ever at the Maria Lenk Trophy with a time of 22.61, the 37-year-old won his second consecutive silver medal at the World Championships in a time of 22.75.

Henrique Martins, who was also in that World Championship final placing 6th, took 2nd in 23.58 with Cesar Cielo getting in there for 3rd in 23.78.

OTHER WINNERS

• Florenica Perotti of Pinheiros won the women’s 400 IM in 4:45.61, rocketing to a 1:03.7 freestyle leg to extend her lead from 1.5 to 5 seconds at the finish. Virginia Bardach (4:50.87) held off Nathalia Almeida by .01 for silver.
• SESI-SP teammates Daynara de Paula (26.80) and Etiene Medieros (26.86) went 1-2 in the women’s 50 fly.
• de Paula and Medeiros were back in the water soon after as SESI-SP won the women’s 400 free relay in 3:45.25 over Unisanta (3:47.59) and Minas (3:49.54). Notable splits came from de Paula (55.83) and Maranhao (55.26) for Unisanta, both on the anchor leg.
• The men’s 400 free relay finished the session off with an exciting race, as Pinheiros (3:19.58) edged out Minas (3:19.63) by just five one-hundredths of a second. Notable splits came from Pedro Spajari (48.93) on the Pinheiros lead-off, Leonardo Alcover (49.59) on Unisanta’s second leg, as well as Matheus Santana (49.43) who went second for the bronze medalists from Unisanta.