Action kicked off today at the 32nd edition of Brazil's famed Trofeu Jose Finkel meet in Santos. This year's meet is being held short course, serving dual purposes as both the Brazilian Winter Swimming Championships, as well as being the country's final selection meet for the upcoming World Short Course Championships being held this October in Indianapolis.

In past years, this meet has hosted international greats such as Inge De Bruijn, Denis Silantiev, and Yana Klochkova. International swimmers swim under Brazilian club affiliations in a situation much like the French Interclub championships, but due to the ill-timing of this year's meet with Worlds a few weeks away and many swimmers on hiatus after Athens, the field is comprised mostly of domestic swimmers.

Despite this, there were some excellent swims in the first night of finals, including two Brazilian and South American records.

The women's 50 free was the first event on the program, and easily the most exciting. Flavia Delaroli set a Brazilian and South American record in preliminaries, blazing to a 24.81, but was unable to duplicate the time in finals. After former record holder Rebeca Gusmao was disqualified for a false start, it appeared as though Delaroli had the race on lock, but an unexpected challenger had other plans. Flavia Neto de Jesus swam stroke for stroke with Delaroli, and nearly caught her, but at the end, Delaroli had the better finish, touching in 25.11 to de Jesus' 25.21. Gusmao and Delaroli will represent Brazil in this event by virtue of the fact that Gusmao's time was swam at a qualifying meet. Flavia Neto de Jesus' time was also under the designated qualifying time, but as with the Olympics, only two swimmers per event per country are allowed entries.

Most swimmers will agree that a good 50 freestyle relies on the luck of a good start, turn, or finish, and on this night, luck shined in the direction of Nicholas dos Santos. By the virtue of three-hundredths of a second, dos Santos booked his flight for Indy, touching in 21.93, the only time under 22 seconds. Jader Souza was not as lucky, touching second in 22.04, less than a tenth away from the standard.

No such luck in the women's 200 breaststroke, but Mariana Katsuno swam away from the field easily, hitting the pads at 2:32.75 to closest pursuer Ana Gomez' 2:34.13. Katsuno was nearly three seconds shy of the predesignated standard of 2:29.80.

The men's 200 breast was a much closer race, with three swimmers touching less than a half-second apart. At the finish, it was Marcelo Tomazini who emerged victorious, clocking in at 2:11.06 to U.S. Nationals winner Henrique Barbosa's 2:11.37. Thiago Pereira, Brazil's 1:59 long course 200 IMmer, touched third at 2:11.44. Though Tomazini was within a second of the standard, he can take solace in the fact that he would have had to break the Brazilian and South American record by four-tenths of a second to qualify for Worlds.

Joanna Maranhao had no problem showing her heels to the field in the women's 800 free. Brazil's teenage female superstar sped to a nine-second win, cracking the Brazilian and South American records with her clocking of 8:32.17. The lack of competition left her to swim against an internal clock which drifted her less than a second shy of the designated standard for Indy in this event. She'll still be there for her trademark IM races.

Today's events started with the shortest, and concluded with the longest. The men's 1500 free saw Thiago Tognozzi and Juan Pereyra play cat and mouse for 1300 meters, when Tognozzi decided to turn on the jets for a two second win. Tognozzi touched at 15:18.17 to Pereyra's 15:20.46. This event has big shoes to fill as the Brazilian and South American records are both below 15:00.

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