Maria Lenk Trophy: Fernanda Alvarenga, Gabriella Silva and Guilherme Roth Finish Prelims With South American Records

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, May 7. TONIGHT's long course meter preliminary session produced a few more South American records at the Maria Lenk Trophy meet held in Rio de Janeiro.

Fernanda Alvarenga blazed to a South American record of 2:12.32 in the women's 200 back. The swim crushed the former record of 2:14.88 set by Alvarenga in December 2008. No one else even came close to Alvarenga in prelims.

Gabriella Silva added another South American record with a 26.18 in prelims of the women's 50 fly. The time eclipsed her previous record of 26.28 set in September 2008. Paula Ferreira qualified second in 26.61.

During the men's 50 fly, Kaio Almeida posted an exhibition swim of 23.55 to tie the South American record set by Fernando Scherer in 2005. Cesar Cielo, however, whipped out the South American record with a time of 23.49 during prelims. But, Guilherme Roth topped the field with a top-seeded 23.46. Other notable times into finals were Nicholas dos Santos (23.68) and Henrique Martins (23.82).

Three swimmers cleared 2:01 in the men's 200 back with Andrew Schultz pacing the field with a 2:00.22. Lucas Salatta finished second in 2:00.89, while Leonardo de Deus took third in 2:00.97.

Joanna Maranhao topped the women's 400 free preliminary round with a 4:14.53, while Kristel Kobrich took second in 4:15.74. In the men's middle distance heats, Matheus Ribeiro clocked a meet-record time of 3:52.37 for the top seed. Juan Pereyra finished second in 3:54.13 with Conrad Chedi touching just behind in 3:54.52.

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