Day two at the Maria Lenk Trophy meet gave the crowd another Brazilian record, though they had to wait until the final event of the session to witness it in an exciting race. The long course meet is part of the selection process for the country’s roster for the Pan American Games and world championships.
What started out as a one-man race turned into a two-man battle in the final heat of the men’s 1500 freestyle. Miguel Valente had a lead of nearly two seconds over the field at 500 meters but Brandon Almeida began chipping away on Valente’s lead, finally flipping even with him at the 950-meter mark and using the momentum to win with a 15:12.20, dropping 10 seconds off his lifetime best. Almeida’s major breakthrough qualifies him for the world championships and breaks Luiz Arapiraca’s four-year-old national record of 15:12.69. For his efforts, Almeida finds himself ranked 11th in the world.
Lucas Kanieski was two seconds behind the leaders at the halfway point of the mile, but found a second wind in the final 500 as well, passing Valente and nearly catching Almeida to place second with a 15:14.18, good enough for 14th in the world. Valente faded badly, settling for third with a 15:22.84.
Though he didn’t swim as well as expected in the NCAA championships two weeks ago, Arthur Mendes put together a smart swim in the 100 butterfly to win with a 52.33. The Auburn University junior dipped under the automatic qualifying time of 52.36 and will now attend his first world championships after winning bronze in the event at the 2011 junior world championships. The top five all broke 53 seconds in another close finish, with Henrique de Souza placing second with a 52.53 and Thiago Pereira third in 52.57. Henrique Silva (52.85) and Pedro Vieira (52.92) rounded out the sub-53 swims. Nicholas Santos, swimming in lane seven, was leading at 50 meters with a 23.98 but faded badly to place sixth with a 53.10.
Brazil’s male breaststroke depth was on display in the 200 breast final, where four athletes finished within five tenths of each other. It was a 1-2-3 sweep for the Corinthians team, led by the 2:11.79 by Thiago Simon. The time is good enough to place him seventh in the world rankings, but falls short of automatic selection for world championships. The FINA “A” standard is 2:11.71, while the Brazilian swimming federation set the qualifying time at 2:11.66. Due to Simon’s high ranking in the world, he’s likely to find his name on the international roster. Andreas Mickosz, just 18 years old, raced like a veteran with a runner-up time of 2:11.92, while Felipe Silva was third with a 2:12.05. Silva posted a 2:11.56 in prelims this morning to rank him fifth in the world, but could not replicate the swim in finals. It is unclear if Silva’s prelim time makes him eligible for selection to the world championship team, but he is likely to qualify in his specialty, the 100 breast.
Daynara Paula turned in third place at the halfway point of the 100 butterfly final, but turned on the afterburners off the wall to win by a body length with a 58.82. It’s faster than the FINA “A” standard of 59.18 to qualify for world championships, but a bit shy of Brazil’s qualifying time of 58.74 and just off the top 20 in the world rankings. Bruna Lemos (59.80) and Daiene Dias (1:00.29) rounded out the top three.
Argentina’s Julia Sebastian swam with the field for 150 meters in the women’s 200 breast final before blasting a 37.90 in the final to win by a body length with a 2:28.38. Macarena Ceballos, another Argentinian, took second with a 2:29.95, while Pamela Souza took third with a 2:30.31 as the top Brazilian.
Second placer in the W200 breast Ceballos is also Argentinean.