Brazilians flood the finals and an American record! On Saturday morning (31), another day of the swimming qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games took place at the Paris La Defense Arena. Gabriel Araújo was, once again, the Brazilian highlight, securing a spot in the final in 1st place and breaking the record for the Americas. In addition to the athlete from Minas Gerais, Maria Carolina Santiago (1st), Wendell Belarmino (6th), Douglas Matera (6th) and Matheus Souza (7th) will also compete in their respective finals.
50 M COSTS S2 – MALE
Another day, another category, but the show remains the same. Gabriel Araújo came in first in his heat and in the overall ranking with a time of 53.67. In addition to reaching the top of the table, the swimmer broke the record for the Americas, which was his own. In the final of the category in Tokyo 2020, Gabriel Araújo had a time of 53.96, winning the gold and setting the (old) record.
Vladimir Danilenko (Russia), Alberto Abarza (Chile), Jacek Czech (Poland), Cristopher Gregório Tronco (Mexico), Roman Bondarenko (Ukraine), Rodrigo Santillan (Peru) and Jesus Rey López (Mexico) will duel against Gabriel Araújo for the podium in the category today, at 2:30 pm.
100M BACKSTROKE S12 – WOMEN
In the category for athletes with some degree of visual impairment, Brazil was present at both ends of the table, because Maria Carolina Santiago took 1st place in the second heat and, consequently, 1st place in the qualifying round, with 1m09s60. At the other end, Raquel Viel was in the same heat as Santiago, but did not do as well as the athlete from Pernambuco, finishing in 10th place in the overall ranking and did not advance to the final.
Meanwhile, Carolina Santiago is looking to improve her time to surpass her bronze in Tokyo 2020. In 2021, the swimmer came in 3rd with a time of 1m09s18, just a few hundredths faster than in the qualifying round in Paris.
Anna Stetsenko (Ukraine), Maria Delgado (Spain), Ayano Tsujiuchi (Japan), Jenna Jones (Australia), Karina Petrikovicova (Slovakia), Leane Morceau (France) and Naomi Schwarz (Germany) will play the final against Carolina Santiago later today at 12:37 pm.
50M FREE S11 – MEN
In the last competition with Brazilians in the morning, Wendell Belarmino and Matheus Souza, swimmers with almost total visual impairment, advanced to the final in 6th and 7th, respectively. Both athletes were in the same heat, Belarmino had a time of 26s76 and took 2nd place, while Matheus completed the race in 26s91 and took 3rd.
The Brazilians will play in the final, which will be today, at 3:35 pm, against David Kratochvil (Czech Republic), Dongdong Hua (China), Bozun Yang (China), Keiichi Kimura (Japan), Edgaras Matakas (Lithuania) and Danylo Chufarov (Ukraine).
100M BACKSTROKE S12 – MEN
The only Brazilian who competed in the event was Douglas Matera from Rio de Janeiro, who managed to qualify. The swimmer came in 3rd in the first heat, with a time of 1m04s19. In the overall ranking of the qualifiers, Matera came in 6th place and advanced to the final.
In addition to Matera, Stephen Clegg (Great Britain), Raman Salei (Azerbaijan), Yaroslav Denysenko (Ukraine), Dzmitry Salei (Belarus), Maksim Vashkevich (Belarus), Maulana Yavianda (Indonesia) and Alex Villarejo (Spain) will compete in the final later today at 12:30 pm.
200M FREE S14 – MEN
In the category for swimmers with some degree of intellectual disability, Gabriel Bandeira was unable to repeat his performance from Tokyo. The multiple champion finished 5th in his heat and 9th overall, with a time of 1m59s65. The Brazilian was unable to advance to the final, but is on the reserve list in case any swimmer is unable to go to the pool.
However, Nicholas Bennett (Canada), William Ellard (Great Britain), Jack Ireland (Australia), Juan Esteban Garcia (Colombia), Tsun Cheung (Hong Kong), Dmytro Vanzenko (Ukraine), Alexander Hillhouse (Denmark) and Wai Tang (Hong Kong) will contest the final at 12:44pm today.
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