Brazilian swimmer Thiago Pereira won a gold medal in the 400 meters individual medley on Tuesday, and also took part in the team that ranked first in the 4x200 meters free relay, breaking the records for both competitions in the Pan American Games.
In the 400m medley, Pereira's time was four minutes, 11.14 seconds, breaking the Pan Am record, as well as the South American record for the event.
Later, he opened Brazil's participation in the free relay, followed by Rodrigo Castro, Lucas Salatta and Nicholas Oliveira. The quartet clocked seven minutes 12.27 seconds, almost two and a half seconds ahead of the U.S. team.
Pereira said after his second victory on Tuesday that he did not compete exclusively to win medals, but stressed that it was "very important" to beat the U.S., as they had never lost the 4x200m freestyle relay before in the Games.
However, Pereira failed to produce any personal best in either of the two events. He won a gold medal in the 200m medley in the 2003 Pan Am Games, held in the Dominican Republic, and the world title in the same event at the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships in the USA. Also in 2004, he participated in the 200m medley finals at the Athens Olympics, and finished fifth.
In Rio de Janeiro's Pan Am Games, Pereira will still have the chance to win medals in six other events: the 200m breaststroke, the 100m backstroke, the 200m freestyle, the 4x100m medley relay, the 4x100m freestyle relay and the 200m individual medley.
Source: Xinhua
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