Matheus Santana Axes A Chunk Off His World Junior 100 Free Record With 48.35

May 10, 2014 - Craig Lord

Matheus Santana, the 18-year-old who established a 48.61 World Junior record over 100m free at the Maria Lenk Trophy last month, took the global youth pace down to 48.35 for a victory on the junior side of the Brazilian Winter Nationals in Rio.

Out in 23.51 and back in 24.84, Santana is building into a swimmer who will soon be tipped for gold at a home Olympic Games over 100m if he continues to make the kind of progress he has made of late.

At the Maria Lenk, he set the inaugural World Junior record by racing inside the standard time set by FINA at the rate of World Junior Championship records, in the case of the 100m the time in which American Caeleb Dressel claimed the youth crown in Dubai last year.

Santana’s latest effort lifts him from 10th to 6th on the SwimVortex World Rankings powered by Fastskin.

In other action over on the senior side of the meet, Thiago Pereira clocked  1:59.58 to win the 200 medley; Etiene Medeiros took the 50m back in 28.32; Fabio Santi timed in at 25.62 to win the men’s 50 back, the time just outside the top 80 in the world so far this year. Henrique Barbosa took the 200m breaststroke in 2:13.35 ahead of Thiago Simon, 2:14.30, and Felipe Franca da Silva, on 2:15.07, Franca de Silva clocked 27.27 in the 50 on day 1 of the meet for a world top 5 place this season.

Larissa Oliveira set a second meet mark of the week with a 54.87 in the 100m free after a 2min flat in the 200m, while Pamela Souza joined the champs record party with a 2:31.31 win in the 200m breaststroke; while Leonardo De Deus took the 400m free in 3:50.71. The meet has one day to go.