Thanks to D’Artagnan Dias for contributing to this report.
A pair of South American Records went down on the penultimate day of the 2014 World Short Course Championships in Doha, Qatar: both of which came in sprint distances, where South Americans have historically excelled as compared to the distance events.
First, in the men’s 50 back final, Venezuelan Albert Subirats swam a 23.16 en route to a 4th-place finish (though well behind Florent Manaudou’s stunning World Record in the event of 22.22).
That swim broke the 2012 record of 23.18 done by Brazilian Guilherme Guido, who still owns all or part of 5 South American records.
The second record came to Brazilian Nicholas Santos in a silver medal performance in the men’s 50 fly, where he was a 22.08. That was under the old Championship Record, but so was gold medalist Chad le Clos of South Africa (21.95). Santos broke his own continental mark that was done at the Beijing World Cup stop in 2013, where Santos put in a 22.13.
