maestro

Spring Nationals, Day #5 (final)
 
finally, the last day of the championship's MVP goes to a man, Simone Cerasuolo
 
the best result of the day, in fact, came from the men's 50m breaststroke, where Cerasuolo beat Martinenghi in an excellent 26.59 (26.78 for the 100m Olympic champion)
of course, both earned an official ticket to Singapore
Ludovico Viberti was 3rd with 27.01
 
today's last races (lots of withdrawals, unfortunately):
 
women's 50m breaststroke: 1.Anita Bottazzo, 30.42; 2.Arianna Castiglioni, 30.58; 3.Lisa Angiolini, 30.63...good and exciting race, but nobody matched the required time to book a ticket for the world champs, which means that Benedetta Pilato, who was completely out of shale this week, still has a chance to sneak in into the team at the Settecolli meet later in June
 
women's 400m free: 1.Simona Quadarella, 4.08.50...easy task for Quadarella against a very modest bunch of opponents
 
men's 400m IM: 1.Pier Andrea Matteazzi, 4.16.12...with Razzetti and Mantegazza pulling out at the last minute, the title goes to the veteran Matteazzi in a quite modest race (even if close enough to close an eye on the final clocking)
 
women's 200m back: 1.Francesca Romana Furfaro, 2.11.64
 
men's 1500m free: 1.Matteo Diodato, 14.58.88...life isn't easy after the Paltrinieri era
 
women's 50m fly: 1.Viola Scotto Di Carlo, 26.35
 
last event of the meet, the men's 4*100m relay...Frigo, D'Ambrosio and Zazzeri all around the 48.5 mark in the first leg, Miressi, Conte Bonin and Deplano all around 48.2/48.4 in the internal legs, just to confirm the individual race's values and the worrying perspective for our national relay looking forward to the world champs

Spring Nationals, Day #4
 
once again, Sara Curtis MVP of the day
 
after improving her National record over the women's 50m freestyle in the morning heats, she repeated herself in the afternoon final, winning the title and swimming another record, this time down to 24.43 (2nd clocking of the year so far, for what it means)
 
more from the 4th day of the championships:
 
men's 100m fly: 1.Federico Burdisso, 51.83 (a step back from yesterday's medley relay leg); 2.Alberto Razzetti, 51.94 (despite all, new PB for him)
 
women's 100m back: 1.Anita Gastaldi, 1.00.46 (PB)...it was a very close and entertaining race, despite the poor clocking...however, the 1.01.X swum by a couple of girls from 2008 and 2009 is a better news than the actual medal contest
 
men's 200m back: 1.Christian Bacico, 1.57.70 (PB and triple crown for him in the back races...in absence of Ceccon, of course)
 
women's 200m fly: 1.Paola Borrelli, 2.08.94 (PB, but still way behind the expected time)
 
men's 200m breastroke: 1.Christian Mantegazza, 2.10.68 (PB, but once again, not even close to the expected result, especially after his new big PBs in the 100m breast and 200m IM)
 
men's 200m free: 1.Carlos D'Ambrosio, 1.46.32; 2.Filippo Megli, 1.46.82; 3.Marco De Tullio, 1.47.31; 4.Alessandro Ragaini, 1.48.03
disaster, total disaster in the 4*200m free relay's perspective. D'Ambrosio did the bare minimum, won the title but the clocking is way, way worse than expected (partial excusation, he said he was sick with fever last week)
big disappointment also from Alessandro Ragaini, who won last year in 1.45.8 and now looks totally out of shape
 
finally, in the women's 4*200m free relay, no significative clocking was registered...after all the emotions of the individual success, Alessandra Mao just swam a 2.00.47 internal leg 

She did progress through the rounds in the 100 very well so you're no doubt right.
 
In other news Australia has finally found a male backstroker with 16 year old Henry Allan going 24.88 and 53.73 at Australian Age Championships this week.
 

Italian record in the morning (i.e. in heats) for Sara Curtis in the 50 m freestyle, 24.52. At this point I expect the time to be lowered in tonight's final

Italy finally has a proper freestyle sprinter.  No disrespect to Pellegrini but she was more of a mid distance freestyler stretching down to the 100.

Spring Nationals, Day #3
 
Sara Curtis MVP of day 3 of the Italian Spring Nationals! 
 
after improving her PB in the women's 100m freestyle already in the morning heats, in the afternoon final she destroyed not only her previous limit, but also the 9-year old National Record, previously held by our swimming icon Federica Pellegrini
53.01 is the new record
 
in the same race, Emma Virginia Menicucci was 2nd in 54.14 (big new PB for her) and Chiara Tarantino was 3rd in 54.28
 
given that Tarantino has a sub-54 PB and also Sofia Morini (here completely out of shape) is a sub-54 swimmer at her best, now the Italian women's 4*100m free relay begins to look like a good one (sure, USA and AUS are out of reach, but the rest of the world is not so far away anymore
 
more on Today's Finals:
 
men's 800m Free: 1.Davide Marchello, 7.53.32
 
women's 200m IM: 1.Sara Franceschi, 2.10.95; 2.Anita Gastaldi, 2.10.97 (PB), both World qualifying times
 
men's 200m IM: 1.Alberto Razzetti, 1.58.05 (again definitely below the expectations, something's not good with him this week ); 2.Christian Mantegazza, 1.58.95 (big PB, class of 2005)
 
men's 100m Free: 1.Manuel Frigo, 48.34; 2.Carlos D'Ambrosio, 48.60 (very disappointed with him...he should have swum 1 second faster); 3.Lorenzo Zazzeri, 48.62; 4.Alessandro Miressi, 48.74 
even if we can add Ceccon and maybe Deplano (if he can convince himself he can swim fast also the 100m and not only the 50m), the 4*100m relay's perspective is really depressing 
 
women's 1500m Free: 1.Simona Quadarella, 16.03.77
 
in the club relays (the 4*100m medley relays), among the women, Sara Curtis swam "only" 1.01 in the backstroke leg, Bottazzo had a good 1.05.40 in the breastroke leg, confirming his win over the individual distance wasn't a fluke and Tarantino (53.68) and Menicucci (54.11) confirmed the value of their clockings from the individual race also with the flying start
among the men, Bacico swam even better than the individual race winning effort (53.42) in the backstroke leg, Martinenghi edged out Viberti in the breastroke leg (58.70 to 58.99), Burdisso swam a decent 50.8 in the fly leg and finally Manuel Frigo confirmed himself the best 100m free specialist of the moment with an impressive 47.2 stint

And Pellegrini is gone on the 100!
 
Italian Record for Sara Curtis in the 100 free with 53.01

Sara Curtis improved her 100 free PB to 53.57 in the heats  

Spring Nationals, Day #2
 
sleepy and somehow disappointing day in Riccione...until the last individual race of the day, when the unthinkable happened: the next big thing in Italian swimming revealed herself well earlier than expected 
 
Alessandra Mao, in fact, despite being only 14 (not even sure she already turned 14, actually), won the National title over the women's 200m freestyle in 1.58.86 
 
given that she basically doesn't have a decent start nor turns and she's not doing any power training in the gym yet, I hope (and think) she has room to become a world star in the next few years
 
Today's other champions:
 
women's 50m back: Sara Curtis, 27.90
 
men's 50m fly: Lorenzo Gargani, 23.32
 
women's 100m fly: Costanza Cocconcelli, 58.04
 
men's 100m breastroke: Nicolò Martinenghi, 59.16 (world champ qualifying time...good to see the Olympic champion back on track, despite not in his best shape both mental and physical); in the same race, Ludovico Blu Art Viberti slept big time in the morning heats and was forced to swim in the B Final, which he won in 59.04 (but since he didn't do it in the A final, the time is not accepted as a world qualifier for now)
 
women's 200m breaststroke: Francesca Fangio, 2.23.67 (only 7/100 of a second outside the world champs qualifying time)
 
men's 100m back: Christian Bacico, 53.61

Spring Nationals, Day #1
 
men's 50m back: in Ceccon's absence, 2 youngsters dominated the field...Christian Bacico (2005) won the title and improved himself up to 24.83
Daniele Del Signore (2007) ended up in second place with 25.21
 
women's 800m free: always only Simona Quadarella...8.24.25 for her, just enough to win the title and earn herself the official ticket to the world champs next Summer
 
men's 200m fly: Alberto Razzetti easily won the race in 1.55.06 (only 7/100 outside the qualifying time), but he said he's not feeling well at all and he's worried about the next days and races
 
women's 100m breaststroke: the race of the championships in day #1. despite Benedetta Pilato gave up the final after a poor heat performance, we already have both world champs qualifiers: Anita Bottazzo won the title with a huge PB in 1.05.82, followed by Lisa Angiolini in 1.06.01. Arianna Castiglioni ended up in 3rd place and therefore she's gonna miss the world champs (at least in this race) despite a good 1.06.22
 
men's 400m free: Marco De Tullio easily won the race in 3.46.90. Summertime sadness (cit.) for a race that was always so successful for our Country and now it's one of the poorest
 
women's 400m IM: Anna Pirovano won in 4.40.77, which is her PB, but also a depressing time considered that she was just a few tenths of a second outside the old NR at the 300m mark and finished almost 7 seconds shy of said record (still held by Alessia Filippi since Beijing 2008)
 
men's 50m free: Leonardo Deplano destroyed the field, took the title home and earned the official ticket to Singapore with 21.62. all the remaining swimmers were above the 22" mark.
 
finally, in the women's club 4*100m relay, Sara Curtis swum her new PB over the distance in the first leg, she improved by half a second up to 53.72 (and she could have gone faster, if didn't "die" in the last 5/10 meters)
if she can repeat herself in the final of the individual race, this would be a qualifying time for the world champs

Biedermann's super-suited world record is gone! 
 
Lukas Märtens Throws Down 3:39.96 WORLD RECORD In 400 Free, Breaking 2009 Super-Suited Mark

David Popovici set a personal and national best of 21.83 in 50m freestyle at the Romanian National Championship, becoming the first man in history under 22, 47 and 1:43 . He'll probably be aiming for the 50-100-200m freestyle triple in LA.

oh, thanks!
I missed the detail 
and I also hope he's gonna swim all of his program, even if the news about the 50m events being added to the Olympic schedule might mean the end of any attempt to swim a 200m competition for Thomas...I think (fear) now he would focus only on the 50/100m back, fly and 100m free (only because of the relays)

50 metres events will be add at Olympic Games! 

It's Australian Nationals that Ceccon will be competing at where he'll be allowed in the A Final. Trials aren't until June.
 
I'm quite excited to see what times he puts up and hope he doesn't scratch any events from his huge program (100/200 FR, 50/100/200 BK, 50/100 FL).

the Italian Spring Nationals (main selection meet for the World Champs) start on Sunday in the usual location of Riccione
 
a few of our main swimmers won't participate (or won't be tapering because they are already qualified), among them Gregorio Paltrinieri and Thomas Ceccon, who's still training in Australia and he's likely to compete at the Australian Trials (despite he won't be able to swim the A finals, as far as I know)
 
however, a few youngsters are expected to step up and earn themselves some attention by our NT officials (if not a place on the team)
 
the main star of the week should be Carlos D'Ambrosio, who recently beat the old 200m freestyle short course national record held by Filippo Magnini since a very long time (2009, with the old rubber suits)
 
among the women, lots of expectations are on Sara Curtis
 
but, even if it seems a bit too early, take note of this name: Alessandra Mao (class of 2011)
many people expect her as the true "new" Pellegrini

Meanwhile, there is apparently a swimmer named Autumn McIntosh
 
Ward, McIntosh Lead Group Of Fast Swimmers At Missouri Valley Age Group Championships
 
Now we just need a Spring McIntosh and a Winter McIntosh to complete the full set.

Two notable swims from today. First  Kyle Chalmers put up a time of 47.27 in the 100m freestyle at the Bergen Swim Festival.
 
However, he was outdone later in the day by  Luca Urlando who put up a 200m butterfly time of 1:52.37 at the Pro Swim Series . That ranks him as the 4th fastest performer of all time and the 14th fastest performance of all time.

Bulgarian swimming has been on the rise for the past couple of years and we certainly have our best period, since the 80s. But as with most things in  , a lot of good can't be without some bad to compliment it...
 
First Antani Ivanov, who is having a 3 year ban for missing tests (and who is a real moron and i am happy he hits the road) got busted and started feuding with practically everyone and is never at fault for anything. Last year he said he was retiring and getting away from swimming, but recently made the news sites (for more attention) saying, when his ban ends in spring 2026 he is going to start competing for a new country. But like i said, good riddance.
 
But more importantly, today one of our brightest swimmers Josif Miladinov shockingly announced his retirement at 21.. This comes out of the blue without much explanation. He made the 100 m butterfly finals at the Tokyo Olympics and the Doha WCH last year, had won a Silver & Bronze at the Euro.
 
There seems to be no conflict between him and the Federation and he just mentioned in his post, that he wants a new path in his life... Don't know if he is burned out from all the trainings and regimes from a young child or there are some other reasons that are being kept secret, but it's a big blow for this sport here. 
 
 

Summer McIntosh did an interciew with our network, CBC. She says she'll swim 5 events at the upcoming world championships.
 
She also said that this will be the last year she trains at her current base with the Sarasota sharks. She's eying training with Bob Bowman who is currently Leon Marchands current coach.

Sarah Sjöström is pregnant and will take a break from swimming. But her big goal is still to participate in LA 2028. 

Mizuki Hirai  clocked 55.10 in the short course 100 butterfly at a domestic meet to set an Asian record and world junior record 

Summer joined the sub 8:10 club in the 800 free! Would love to see a showdown with Ledecky in Singapore.
 

Aerials WC Beidahu | Beidahu, China 
 
Women
Gold-  Xu Mengtao (114.19)
Silver-  Chen Meiting (109.04)
Bronze-  Danielle Scott (89.18)
 
Men
Gold-  Li Tianma (130.56)
Silver-  Qi Guangpu (119.00)
Bronze-  Christopher Lillis (115.93)
 
Mixed Team
Gold-  China 1 (345.26) 
Silver-  United States 1 (317.05)
Bronze-  China 2 (316.72) 
 
Full Results

Dual Moguls WC Beidahu | Beidahu, China 
 
Women
Gold-  Jaelin Kauf 
Silver-  Perrine Laffont
Bronze-  Tess Johnson
 
Men
Gold-  Severi Vierela
Silver-  Ikuma Horishima
Bronze-  Julien Viel
 
Vierela with his first WC victory!
 
Full Results