2019 Brazil Trophy Night 3: Pinheiros Rattles 4×200 Records

2019 BRAZIL TROPHY (FORMERLY MARIA LENK)

• April 16th-21st, 2019
• Maria Lenk Aquatic Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Meet central
• Entry list
• Start list
• Live results

The 3rd night of the 2019 Brazil Trophy meet, which serves as Brazil’s qualifying meet for this summer’s championship meet, saw swimmers from the Pinheiros club take down one textile South American record and rattle a super-suited one. The 400 IM, 100 free, women’s 1500 free, and the 4×200 free relay were all contested tonight, and while Pinheiros had a big night, Minas still leads in the team standings three days into the meet.

Women’s 400 IM

Virginia Bardach jumped out to the early lead with a 1:03.57 fly leg, but Ilaria Cusinato of Minas negative-split a 1:10.58 backstroke leg to take control and never looked back, winning in 4:40.57.

Barbora Zavadoa split her race fairly similarly to Cusinato, as was in 2nd place by the end of the first 50 of the backstroke leg, ultimately taking silver in 4:43.27.

The top four finishers were all non-Brazilians, but Fernanda Goeij‘s 5th-place time of 4:51.10 was under the FINA ‘B’ cut, meaning that she should be Brazil’s sole representative in this event at Worlds.

Men’s 400 IM

Just as in the women’s race, the eventual winner killed it on the backstroke leg. This time it was Brandonn Almeida of Corinthians, who ultimately won with a 4:13.69. 2nd place went to Leonardo Coehlo Santos, who was just 0.08s off of the FINA ‘A’ cut with a 4:17.98.

200 breast winner Caio Pumputis finished 5th in 4:24.96.

Women’s 100 Free

As we reported earlier, this title went to American Mallory Comerford, who broke the meet record with a 53.33.

Sesi-SP’s Etiene Medeiros took 2nd with a 54.58, dipping under the FINA ‘A’ cut by just 0.01s and thus will represent Brazil in the evident at worlds. Larissa Oliveira also challenged that time, but ultimately finished exactly one-tenth off of it, touching in 54.59.

Men’s 100 Free

We had another big-time swim in the men’s 100 free, where Pinheiros swimmers swept the top four spots. They were led by Marcelo Chierighini, who broke the South American textile record with his time of 47.78.

A total of five men were under the FINA ‘A’ cut of 48.80, including Pinheiros teammates Breno Correia (48.11), Pedro Spajari (48.34), Gabriel Santos (48.53), and Unisanta’s Andre Luiz Calvelo (48.74).

Women’s 1500 Free

Once again, two women got under the FINA ‘A’ standard, although the winner was not Brazilian. In this case, the title went to Argentinian swimmer Delfina Pignatiello, who won in 16:15.20 while representing Pinheiros.

Viviane Jungblut of GNU was the top-finishing Brazilian, securing her spot in this event at World with a 16:30.00 that’s two seconds under the ‘A’ cut.

Men’s 4×200 Free

The Pinheiros club came within a tenth of a second of the Brazilian and South American records that were at the Rome World Championships way back in 2009. Their time of 7:09.81 would’ve made finals at the 2017 World Championships.

Full splits were not available, but Luiz Melo and Felipe Ribiero combined for a 3:34.80, which averages out to 1:47.40 each. Leonardo Cohen Santos split 1:48.40, and Rodrigo Correia anchored in 1:46.61 to give Pinheiros the victory by over 4 seconds.

Minas took 2nd with a time of 7:14.44. If the results are correct, Joao De Lucca led off in 1:49.99 after going 1:47.26 Tuesday, but individual 200 free champion Fernando Scheffer split a smoking 1:45.74, almost perfectly in line with his winning time of 1:46.27 from two days ago.

Women’s 4×200 Free

This may have been the closest race of the night as it came down to a touch between Minas and Pinheiros, with the Minas foursome winning 8:04.52 to 8:04.68.

Again, splits appear to be incomplete, but Minas’s Mallory Comerford split 1:58-high on the 2nd leg, while Larissa Martins Oliveira also put up a 1:58-high anchoring for Pinheiros.

TOP 5 TEAMS AFTER DAY 3:

1. Minas – 1200
2. Pinheiros – 1060
3. Corinthians –507
4. Unisanta – 347
5. GNU – 256.5