The first finals session of the 2015 Brazil Open (Troféu Daltely Guimarães e Torneio Open 2015), one of two Olympic-qualifying meets for the country of Brazil, took place in Palhoca, Santa Catarina tonight. Leonardo De Deus most likely already punched his ticket to Rio with his morning 200m backstroke swim (1:57.43), but the meet runs through December 19th, so there’s still plenty of time for other swimmers to step up.
Results
Day 1 Prelims
FINA A Cut – N/A
FINA B Cut – N/AAlthough not an Olympic event, the men’s and women’s 50m butterfly race was contested amid a stacked field tonight. Daynara Ferreira Paula held on to the win in a time of 26.47, dropping almost a cool half a second form her 26.91 time from this morning. Bruna Caroline Lemos sprinted into 2nd place tonight, clocking a mark of 27.06, followed by Roberta Kaimla Albino from Minas Tenis Club who touched in 27.23 for 3rd.On the men’s side, veteran Nicholas Santos remained on top of the field, albeit a couple of tenths slower than his morning outing. After a 23.16 prelims swim, Santos raced to a 23.38 finish to take the title in tonight’s session. Hnenrique Martins touched in 2nd place just .03 of a second behind, registering a mark of 23.35, while Guilherme Rosolen sneaked into 3rd place with his time of 23.61.
Event: Women’s 200 backstroke FINAL
FINA A Cut – 2:10.60
FINA B Cut – 2:15.17
Natalia De Luccas from Corinthians got the job done tonight, as she did in the morning, touching in 1st place with her time of 2:12.44. She knocked over 4 seconds from her earlier outing of 2:17.04 to demolish the FINA “B” Cut, but still fell short of the “A” standard, which sits at 2:10.60. De Luccas is the only female to have obtained the “B” Cut, as Florencia Perotti, who scored a mark of 2:19.09 this morning, shaved more than 2 seconds from her time to register a 2:16.48. Another Corinthians team member, Gabriela Albuquerque placed 3rd in 2:17.11.
Event: Men’s 200 backstroke FINAL
FINA A Cut – 1:58.22
FINA B Cut – 2:02.36
1 Qualifier from Prelims – Leonardo De Deus (1:57.43)
We already saw Leonardo De Deus rock a time of 1:57.43 this morning to earn a spot on the Rio roster, opting out of swimming in tonight’s final. De Deus will remain as the only swimmer at this meet to have obtained an “A” cut in the men’s 2back, as no swimmer went sub-1:59 in the 2nd session. Dropping a healthy 2 seconds from his morning swim, Fernando Pires Do came the closest to the A mark this evening, touching in 1:59.63 for 1st place. Fabio Santi, who went sub-2 minutes in prelims, bumped up his time to a 2:00.66 for 2nd. Coming in 3rd place was Leonardo Alves Santos Fim, who was well behind the leaders in his mark of 2:03.17.
Event: Women’s 800 freestyle FINAL
FINA A Cut – 8:33.87
FINA B Cut – 8:51.96
Joanna Maranhao was well ahead of the B cut tonight, scoring a time of 8:35.93 in the women’s 800m freestyle for the win. In fact the top 5 finishers in the final all cleared the 8:51.96 standard, but need to do some work in order to make the 8:33.87 A cut that’s needed to automatically make Brazil’s roster for Rio. 2nd tonight went to Bruna Primati in 8:42.15, while Samantha Arevalo touched in 8:42.33 for 3rd.
Event: Men’s 1500 freestyle FINAL
FINA A Cut – 15:14.77
FINA B Cut – 15:46.79
1 Qualifier from Finals – Esteban Enderica (15:09.82)
We saw Brazil’s 2nd swimmer make the Rio roster, in the form of Esteban Enderica‘s monster swim in the 1500m freestyle. Enderica of Ecuador scored a mark of 15:09.82 to dip well beneath the threshold of 15:14.77 to make the team and beat tonight’s competition by over 10 seconds. Enderica’s time also crushed both the Ecuadorian National Record, as well as the South American record in the event. The continental record was previously held by Martin Naidich at 15:10.24 from 2013. Tonight’s finishers in the 2nd-7th spots in the race all touched in times quicker than the 15:46.79 B standard.
Additional Highlights:
As lead-off of his Minas Tenis squad’s 200m freestyle relay tonight, Bruno Fratus crushed an eye-popping lead-off 5o in a time of 21.37, the best of his career. That time surges to the top of the world rankings this season, but also decimated the FINA “A” qualifying standard of 22.27 by nearly a second. Fratus’ split will indeed count as an individual time and will most likely secure his spot as an individual 50m freestyler for Brazil come Rio, as long as he doesn’t contest the event individually. Of note, Cesar Cielo, who opted out of his signature 50m butterfly sprint event at this meet, clocked a speedy 21.44 as the 2nd leg of this same relay for Minas Tenis.
Lorrane Ferreira also scored a FINA A qualifying time for her opening leg as well, matching the A cut of 25.28 for her Minas Tenis squad.
I just meant guys like Fratus will throw down huge times in Brazil like 21.3 on a 50 then swim slower at championship meets. I would love to see one of these guys throw down a textile 21.1 and beat out Manadou or Adrian for Gold in Rio just don’t know if it is a real possibility.
I think it’s hard because Cielo is getting old.But don’t count Fratus out yet.He made some crazy fast times in top competition(like PanPacs last year) but he was under another type of training for Worlds(Fratus improved in each round).He told it was time for experimentation because of the small time between PanAms and Worlds.The problem with Fratus is:He is much smaller than most of sprinters with a bit under six-one.
The Brazilian sprinters swim very fast at these meets inside Brazil but have difficulty replicating that speed outside of Brazil. Any reason for this?
Uh?I would say the opposite:the sprinters deliver a lot more than others in Brazil and outside.Fratus made a PB.Cielo PB(textile) was in Barcelona Worlds.
A curiosity: Fratus and his coach(Brett Hawke) changed his start. He now entry in the water with his arms behind at start.It looks it’s working, but he still didn’t make his goal time(note:he didn’t tell yet).
Enderica is not Brazilian. He is from Ecuador
Esteban Enderica is from Ecuador not Brazilian