Budapest 2024, Day 4 Finals: Sara Curtis Anchor Leg Rallies Italy to 200 Mixed Free Gold
It’s been a breakout year for young Italian Sara Curtis, a campaign that has continued with a world junior record in the women’s 50 backstroke at the 2024 World Short-Course Championships in Budapest this week.
The Piedmontese swimmer added another accolade Friday at the Duna Arena, blasting her way through the anchor leg to get the Italians gold in the mixed 200 freestyle relay.
The team of Leonardo Deplano, Alessandro Miressi, Silvia di Pietro and Curtis went 1:28.50 to get to the wall first. Though the time is more than a second slower than France’s winning time at the 2022 event, the Italians won an exhilarating race that featured four teams clustered within .45 seconds in a back-and-forth affair.
Canada got silver in 1:28.60, with Poland going 1:28.80 to edge the Neutral Athletes B of Russia for bronze by .15.
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The pulsating final proceeded without the United States, which embarrassingly missed out on the final eight in the morning.
Curtis took to the water in third place, .07 seconds behind Canada and .02 behind the neutral athletes. She cleaned up those deficits by her first wall, then came home in 23.34 to get the win for the Italians. It’s the second relay medal for Italy at this meet, with the men’s 400 free relay getting silver in its bid to defend its 2022 title.
“It’s a great victory for us and I’m very proud of our team,” Deplano said. “For me, it is a new medal, was missing from my collection. The race was a real fun and I’m satisfied with my time as this was a personal best for me, which is a good sign before the 50m free tomorrow.”
Canada was first at each wall, with the team of Ilya Kharun, Yuri Kisil, Ingrid Wilm and Mary-Sophie Harvey. (Kharun and Deplano were tied at 20.80 at the first handoff.) Harvey came home in a rock solid 23.51 to get them in second, the third relay medal for Canada at the meet. It’s the fourth medal of the meet for Kharun and the third for Harvey.
Speaking of last-leg heroics, Poland was eighth after Piotr Ludwiczak’s lead-off leg and fourth at the final handoff from Kornelia Fiedkiewicz to Kasia Wasick, a massive .74 seconds behind the Italians for a podium place. But Wasick roared home in 22.90 to nip the Neutral Athletes (Daria Trofimova was 23.81 on the end) for bronze.
It’s the second medal of the meet for Poland, a monumental haul for the country.
“On the first day, the guys won the first ever medal for Poland at the World Championships in the relay and now we’ve got a second bronze in relays, so I’m really proud of that,” Fiedkiewicz said. “I’m so proud to be a part of that relay and really happy to swim it with such great people.”
The Dutch were fifth with a significant result for Slovakia in sixth.
Italy had been the top seed in prelims at 1:29.46. It slotted in Miressi for Lorenzo Zazzeri on the second leg, the former .24 seconds quicker. Canada, which finished fourth in prelims, made two swaps, with Wilm replacing Penny Oleksiak and Kharun in for Finlay Knox, an improvement of nearly nine tenths off the front.
Those prelims made for grim reading for the U.S., with the team of Michael Andrew, Matt King, Claire Weinstein and Alex Shackell unable to make even the top eight. Weinstein’s 24.49 on the third leg didn’t help matters. They were behind, among others, Hong Kong and Norway.
