Last Saturday (14th), the Brazilian Paralympic Swimming Championship came to an end, held at the Paralympic Training Center, in São Paulo. The competition brought together 248 athletes and was marked by the world record held by Gabriel Bandeira in the 100 meters (m) butterfly in the S14 class (intellectual disability), in which he was a gold medalist at the Paralympics in Tokyo (Japan).
Bandeira’s feat was achieved on Friday (13), the second day of competitions. The 22-year-old from São Paulo completed the course in 54s18, surpassing by 28 hundredths the time of Briton Reece Dunn at the 2019 World Championships in London (Great Britain). On Thursday (12), he had already broken the record in the Americas for the hundred meters backstroke, with 51.70.
“This record only excites me more for the World [de Funchal, em Portugal, de 12 a 18 de junho], which is just a month from now. We have a very strong rhythm in training. I didn’t count on beating this record now, at the Brazilian, I was preparing for the Worlds. I’ve been chasing this record for a year and now it’s here”, said the swimmer, in testimony to the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB).
Another highlight was Lídia Cruz, who reinforced the second world mark of the year in the 200 m freestyle in the S4 class (among those aimed at athletes with physical-motor disabilities, she is the fourth with the greatest commitment), with 3min10s20. The 23-year-old carioca had assumed, in April, the position of number two in the category. Now, it has gone down by almost a second to the old time.
The competition at the Paralympic CT was the last before the World Cup on Portuguese soil. Brazil will be represented by 29 swimmers, whose names were announced last Tuesday (10th). The majority (23) needed to reach indices during the first two national phases. Another five (Bandeira among them) were guaranteed for having won gold medals in Tokyo, while Larissa Rodrigues, of the S2 class (high degree of physical-motor commitment) obtained the mark in the Berlin (Germany) stage of the international circuit.
