20 athletes in Brazil are set to compete in this year’s Para Swimming World Championships, which will be held in Manchester, UK, between July 31 and August 6. The marks were obtained during the International Open Championship, a tournament organized by the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB) and which ended last Saturday (29).
In the last three days of competition, at the Paralympic Training Center, in São Paulo, four indicators have been achieved, all in the classes in which the athletes have physical-motor disabilities (the higher the class number, the lower the disability score).
Bruno Becker (S2 class), Edinha García and Mayara Barreto (both S3) qualified for the Worlds in the 200-meter (m) freestyle, while Daniel Mendes (S6) reached the 100-meter freestyle mark.
“It’s an indescribable feeling to get a mark for my second world championship. The work is very well done and the benefit is being made. Now, I’m going to prepare more calmly and focus on the details, without the pressure of continuing to look for the indicator,” he said. Daniel, gold medalist at last year’s World Championships, in Funchal, Portugal, in the 4 x 50-meter 20-point mixed relay (the four-athlete class total limit).
Broken record
Another event on Saturday was Carol Santiago. The swimmer of the category S12 (vision impaired), who had already reached the worlds index on Thursday (27), on the first day of competition, broke the record of the Americas – which was already hers – in the 100m freestyle. On Friday (28), Carroll equaled her own world record in the 50-meter freestyle.
The next opportunity for Brazilian swimmers to look for clues to the World Cup in Manchester will be the first national stage of the circuit Lotreas Caixa, between May 20-21, also at the Paralympic Games. The call for competition is expected to take place in the UK between the last week of May and the beginning of June.
Brazil had 29 representatives at the Funchal World Cup, with 26 of them on the podium. It was the best performance at the country level in the history of the event with 53 medals (19 gold) and third place in the general classification. All of the swimmers who were in Portugal were part of Bolsa Atleta, an individual sponsorship program for athletes, run by the Brazilian government.
Watch the Brazilians with the Manchester World Cup Index
S2: Gabriel Araújo and Bruno Becker
S3: Patricia Pereira, Edinia Garcia and Mayara Barreto
S5: Samuel Oliveira and Estefani Rodriguez
S6: Talison Glock, Leila Sozigan and Daniel Mendes
S8: Cecilia Araujo
S9: Mariana Jestera and Rowan Souza
S10: Felipe Rodrigues
S12: Carol Santiago and Douglas Matera
Season 14: Gabriel Bandera, Deborah Carneiro, Beatriz Carneiro, Joao Pedro Brutos
