Photo Courtesy: Joao Marc Bosch
GUARATINGUETA, Brazil, September 3. CESAR Cielo was on fire during prelims of the Jose Finkel Trophy meet in Brazil today. The meet is taking place in short course meter format.
During prelims, Cielo blasted his way to a 20.68 in the 50-meter free. That’s just off his South American record of 20.51 from 2010, and the meet record of 20.59 from 2012. It’s also the fastest time in the world, better than the 21.07 previously clocked by Josh Schneider on the FINA World Cup tour.
Look for Cielo to break his own record during finals, and potentially take a run at Roland Schoeman’s world record of 20.30 from 2009.
Bruno Fratus (21.40), Alan Vitoria (21.60) and Henrique Souza (21.65) made the top four in what looks to be a fast finale.
In other preliminary action, Femke Heemskerk put up a 24.11 to lead the way in the women’s 50-meter free, while Graciele Hermann touched second in 24.45. Etiene Medeiros rounded out the top three in 24.58.
Florencia Perotti paced the women’s 400-meter IM prelims in 4:45.62 with Gabriele Goncalves finishing second in 4:45.78, while Evandro Silva touched out Thiago Simon, 4:15.67 to 4:15.79, for the men’s 400-meter IM top seed.
Thiago Simon did 4 06 in 400im and Femke did 23.99 in 50m freestyle (woman)
Yes, during finals. This article is about prelims.