A day after breaking the 1:00 barrier for the first time ever in the 100 breaststroke Felipe Silva was back in action and blasted through the 27 second mark in the 50 breast. Silva, who predicted before the meet that he could challenge the world record didn’t quite hit that target but he did become the fastest ever in textile. His time of 26.87 tops the previous fastest of the year of 27.06 from New Zealand’s Glenn Snyders. That time is now the 7th fastest all-time and comes up just short of Silva’s personal best of 26.76 from the 2009 worlds.
Joao Gomes touched second in 27.57 which is the 4th fastest in the world this season while Felipe Lima’s 27.60 from prelims is the 5th. Raphael Rodrigues posted the 8th fastest time in the world this year during the morning and Maurici Pereira went 27.80 in the finals to sit 9th.
After impressive swims in both the 50 free and 50 fly many were expecting another strong swim from Cesar Cielo in the 100 freestyle. Cielo, the defending Olympic champion in the event knows he has to be pretty quick this summer after the blazing 47.10 from James Magnussen already this year but Cielo doesn’t look to be quite there yet. His 48.28 while still the 6th fastest this year has to be seen as somewhat of a disappointment. Many expecting him to break 48 after his strong swims so far at this meet. The weather didn’t help as another rainy and windy evening in Rio could have affected this swim.
Marcelo Chierighini took second in 49.05 which was off the 48.79 he swam in the preliminaries. The Auburn swimmer was most likely also affected by the terrible weather conditions. His prelims time does move him into the top 25 in the world this year as he now sits at 23rd. Fred Bousquet touched third at 49.14 to make it a Tiger sweep.
Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen continues to rack up victories at the meet as she claimed the win in the 100 free this evening. Her time of 54.37 was well off her best time of the year of 53.90 from the Danish Open in March. The co-world champion will be a strong contender this summer in one of her strongest events.
Thiago Pereira jumped into the world’s top 10 in the 400 IM with a 10th ranked 4:13.48. After a strong swim in the 200 IM distance earlier in the meet this had to be somewhat of a disappointment as Pereira was looking to be stronger in the longer medley. It was still impressive given the poor conditions and he will look to be much faster as the summer season kicks into high gear.
On the women’s side it was Spain’s Mireia Belmonte who took the win in 4:39.41. That comes up well short of the 4:33.91 she swam last month at the Spanish Open which ranks her 4th in the world. Known as a very strong short course swimmer, Belmonte will look to translate her SC success to long course this summer.
Ana Carvalho claimed the 50 breaststroke in 31.78. That was off the 31.69 she swam in the prelims to rank 13th in the world. In the men’s 800 free the win went to Argentina’s Juan Pereira in 7:58.40. That time sets a new national record and moves him to 11th in the world in a non-Olympic event.