Brazil continued on through their age group long course Championship meets last weekend with the Carlos Campos Trophy, which is host to the best 15-16 year olds in the country. The results did not disappoint in this meet either, with 16-year old Matheus Santana breaking two more National Age Group Records.
He first just snuck under his old 100 free record with a 51.20 in prelims, but then exploded in finals with a stunning 50.25 in finals to make this a record that could stand for quite some time. That’s right on top of the American age group record (.01 to be precise) set by Joe Hudepohl at 50.24, and that time has stood since 1990.
The young swimmer from Botafogo didn’t stop there; he would follow that swim up with a 23.12 in the 50. That was a new Meet Record, but even still maybe was a bit disappointing considering that he opened his 100 free in 23.73.
Santana wasn’t the only record-breaking performer at this meet, however; his peer from Flamengo (the same club represented by Cesar Cielo) Luiz Altamir knocked a full second off his own National Age Group Record as well, in the 200 free. There, he swam a 1:51.24, along with a 3:57.80 in the 400 free.
Altamir also had a very good meet in the butterfly races, winning the 100 in 55.53 and the 200 fly in 2:01.54, but that 200 was definitely his standout performance.
On the girls’ side of the pool, Natalia de Luccas was the big winner, taking the 16-year-old girls’ freestyle in a new National Age Record of 57.68. She also broke the national mark in the 100 back with a 1:03.63. The Brazilian women are still not nearly at the level that we’ve seen of our American teenagers (where 16 year olds break a minute, and it’s not even that rare anymore), but slowly they are building a strong group of young swimmers with good potential.
very impressive. good to see Brazil has a bright future with Cielo not getting any younger.
Philip,
What is more impressive is the fact the old 16years-old 100free record before Santana, was 51.31 made in a Jaked suit in 2009… by the way, Cielo was only 51.99 at sixteen.Santana holds 50 age group record too in 23.01(Cielo was the previous owner with 23.29).
We have a 14years-old boy(Felipe Ribeiro) already doing 52.32 in 100 free(He beated a shiny suit record time of 53.4).He will be Juvenil 1 next year and will have two years to try to catch Santana´s time.
The 2016-2020 generation is looking really good.