Sara Curtis 50 Free Record Highlights Four Wins at Italian Championships
Sara Curtis set the Italian record in the women’s 50 freestyle on Sunday to cap a four-win performance at the Italian Short-Course Championships.
Curtis’ started the final session of the three-day meet at the Swimming Stadium Riccione with the swim of the meet. She went 23.77 to win the 50 free, her best event. In the process, she downed the mark set in 2022 by Silvia Di Pietro at 23.83. Di Pietro was second in the race Sunday in 24.17.
The win was Curtis’ fourth of the meet. The 18-year-old from Savigliano started out the meet by winning the 50 backstroke in 26.14 on Friday. She navigated a double on Saturday by winning the 100 back in a best time of 57.17, then taking home the 100 free in 52.37.
Curtis was the only quadruple event winner at the meet, but Italian stalwarts Lorenzo Mora and Simona Quadarella joined her with one win each day. Mora went 50.23 to win the men’s 100 back in the first event of the meet, needing every bit of that speed to hold off a big time drop by Christian Bacico to 50.39. Mora dominated the 50 back in 22.89, then turned in a dominant 1:49.95 to get under the Short-Course Worlds cut in the 200 back.
Quadarella faced little resistance in her swims. She won the 1,500 free on the opening day of the meet in 15:33.40, under the Worlds cut. She went 8:15.30 to win the 800 free by more than eight seconds, then controlled the field to win the 400 free in 4:02.29.
Benedetta Pilato picked up two wins in her breaststroke wheelhouse. She went 1:03.77 to win the 100 by 1.2 seconds over Arianna Castiglioni, then 29.30 to beat Castiglioni by .69 seconds in the 50. Francesca Fangio, third in the 100, won the 200 that Pilato skipped out on.
Lorenzo Glessi picked up two individual medley wins. He went 52.19 to win the 100 and 1:54.14 in the 200. Simone Cerasuolo won the 100 breast in 56.28 and the 50 in 25.79.
One star still working into the short-course season is Nicolo Martinenghi. The Olympic champion in the men’s 100 breaststroke finished third in the 50 breast, going 26.07 behind Cerasuolo and Ludovico Viberti. Martinenghi scratched the 100 and 200 breast. (Italy’s other Paris Olympic gold medalist, Thomas Ceccon, didn’t take part in the meet.)
Alessandro Miressi won the men’s 100 free in a thriller of a race that featured eight swimmers separated by .39 seconds. Miressi got his hand to the wall first in 471.0, .08 up on Giovanni Carraro and with Leonardo Deplano third in 47.26. Delplano’s 21.21 had won the 50 free over Miressi’s 21.46.
Giulia D’Innocenza had an intriguing weekend. She won the 200 back in 2:05.70 after two runner-up results. She was second to Curtis in the 100 in 57.93 and second in the 200 free to Sofia Morini, the 100 free runner-up.
As a consolation to seeing her record go away, Di Pietro won the 50 fly in 25.52. Chiara Della Corte and Costanza Cocconcelli tied for the win in the women’s 100 IM in 59.32 seconds. Della Corte won the 200 IM by nearly two seconds and was third in the 50 breast. Cocconcelli was third in the 100 fly. Federico Burdisso won the men’s 200 fly in 1:52.85.