Today marked the first finals session of the 44th Jose Finkel Trophy in São Paulo, Brazil, where spectators saw both Brazilians and foreign swimmers take to the long course meters pool. The meet runs through Saturday, August 22nd.
Club Pinheiros’ Manuella Lyrio kicked off the night with a new championship record in the women’s 200m freestyle. Lyrio touched in 1:58.65 to just barely hold off a charging Leah Neale, the Australian who is representing Minas Tenis Club for this meet only. Neale would finish in 1:58.69 and the pair represent the only two to dip beneath the 2-minute mark in the race tonight. 3rd place belonged to Pinheiros’ Larissa Oliveira who earned a time of 2:00.72. If the bronze medalist’s name looks familiar, you may remember she was the Brazilian swimmer who found herself in a scuffle with China’s Sun Yang on the final day of the 2015 FINA World Championships.
For the men’s 200m freestyle, Pan American champion, Joao De Lucca was listed on the start lists for the event, but the former University of Louisville Cardinal was not on deck today. Nicolas Oliveira took advantage of De Lucca’s absence, however, winning the 200m free in a new championship record of 1:47.41 and beating the rest of the field by almost two full seconds with his effort.
Another missing prime time swimmer was Etiene Medeiros, who was scheduled to swim the women’s 100m backstroke today. Although Medeiros was in the building, according to SporTV Blog do Coach, the World Championships silver medalist is reportedly tired and will focus on just the 50m distance at the Finkel Trophy. In her stead, Natalia De Luccas was the 100m backstroke winner, taking the title in a time of 1:01.57.
The men’s version of the 100m backstroke belonged to Pinheiros swimmer Guilherme Guido, who stood atop the podium with his 53.36 clocking, a time just .12 of a second shy of his own meet record of 53.24 he registered back in 2009. Guido’s time tonight ranks as the 13th-fastest swim of 2015 in the event, although he already owns the 8th-fastest with his 53.12 outing at the Pan American Games earlier this summer.
Additional Winners:
- Joanna Maranhao took home the win in the women’s 1500m freestyle tonight in 16:31.17, over four seconds faster than her nearest competitor.
- Pinheiros Relay “A” took the gold in the men’s 200m freestyle relay in a time of 1:28.37. Splits included Marcelo Chierighini in 22.50, Bruno Fratus in 21.69 – the fastest of the entire field, Gabriel Silva Santos in 22.11 and Pedro Spajari in 22.70.
The meet continues tomorrow with prelims beginning at 10am local time/9am Eastern.
Laces out.