The 2018 Sette Colli Trophy kicked off in Rome, Italy this morning, with plenty of European stars on hand to set up for what should be a fast few days of racing. The first day of the meet features the men’s and women’s 50 backstroke, 400 free, 100 breast, and 50 free in addition to the women’s 50 fly and men’s 100 fly.
2018 Sette Colli Trophy – Day One Prelims – Results
The morning featured a few surprise top seeds, the biggest of which was the Netherlands Arno Kamminga earning the top seed in the men’s 100 breast out of heat 4 over world record holder Adam Peaty, who followed him in heat 6, 59.41 to 59.49. Similarly, Italian Federico Burdisso took the top seed in the 100 fly (52.23) over South African Chad le Clos (52.45). British swimmer James Guy (52.80) should also be in the mix in that event tonight as well.
Russian Yulia Efimova swam a very relaxed 1:07.49 to take the top seed in the women’s 100 breast, actually negative splitting her race by over a second (34.27/33.22). While Italian Arianna Castigliani will go into the final seeded just behind her (1:07.93), expect Efimova to have a lot more over that opening 50 to try and get by her second ranked time of 1:05.78.
Swedish swimmer Sarah Sjostrom was a major highlight of the morning, earning top seeds in both the 50 fly and 50 free. Sjostrom started her meet off by earning the fastest seed in the 50 fly by more than a second, hitting the wall in 25.33 to register the only time under 26 seconds in the field. She followed the up shortly after with a 24.33 in the 50 free to earn the top seed over Danish Olympic Champion Pernille Blume, who touched just behind in 24.47.
Blume and Sjostrom were followed by Dutch Olympians Femke Heemskerk (24.70) and Ranomi Kromowidjojo (24.98), who should also be in the mix in tonight’s final.
On the men’s side, Brazilian Bruno Fratus continued to cement his legacy as the most consistent 50 freestyler in history, earning the top seed for tonight’s final in 21.79 to add to his historic career list of sub-22 swims. Just behind him was British swimmer Ben Proud in 21.90.
You can find full results from the first prelims session of the 2018 Sette Colli Trophy in the link above.
