Swimming, World Championships: Quadarella flies to the final, Ceccon passes in the 100m backstroke

During the Italian night, the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka resumed with the heat session which included the 100m backstroke, the gold specialty and the world record of Thomas Ceccon, fresh from the silver medal with the 4x100m freestyle and from entering the final in the 50m butterfly which will see him twice in the water today from 1pm (semi-finals and finals on Rai 2, Rai Sport and Sky Sport). The Vicenza driver who uses his 51″60 from a year ago as a reference, advances to the semifinals with the 14th time in 53″84. Even the American Hunter Armstrong, Olympic bronze medalist and vice world champion, passes with an improvable time, 16th in 53″94, one hundredth from the Australian Isaac Cooper, first of the excluded in 53″95; out also the Greek Apostolos Christou, European silver in Rome, only 19th in 54”01. In the lead is the Chinese Xu Jiayu in 52″87, the only one under 53″ in the heat. Says Ceccon: “I didn’t think I’d risk it like that, I felt good, I had seen the other series and I thought we could go to the semifinal even without pushing. I’m in for a tenth, that’s the important thing, but maybe I joked a little too much. I saved myself. The others are there with me. This start to the World Cup is tiring: in the first two days I swim six races; Yesterday I finished at one in the morning and I’m pretty tired. We are not used to these rhythms, but we must learn to manage them. Now two more important races await me: the final of the 50m butterfly and this semifinal with less than 30 minutes of break between one and the other. I will do my best”.

Simon ok

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Easy qualification in the final of the 1500m scheduled for Tuesday, for the former world champion Simona Quadarella who, with an average of 31″8/31″9, finishes the thirty laps in 15’55″05, the last heat for the second time trial of the preliminary rounds. The 24-year-old from Rome swims alongside the American Katie Ledecky who competes in 15’41”22, the Australian Lani Pallister touches it in 15’58”11, fourth is the Chinese Bingjie Li in 15’58”81. Under sixteen minutes also the tenacious German Isabel Gose fifth in 15’59”67. “I want to take back the world podium – says the Italian record holder (15’40″89) trained at the Aniene by Christian Minotti – Ledecky is from another planet, but otherwise we’re all pretty close and it will be a great final. I didn’t struggle much today, to be honest, I felt the fatigue around 1200 meters and so in the last three hundred I wanted to dose my energies in anticipation of the final. This morning I had good sensations, now anything can happen, every race is unpredictable, as was the final of the 400m freestyle on Sunday. I preferred not to do it and rest”. Margherita Panziera is in the semifinals in the 100m backstroke: for the European champion of the 200m she is 1’00”40, thirteenth time trial with two laps of 29”55 and 30”85. The fastest is the American Regan Smith Olympic bronze with 58”47. “I had a particularly unlucky season – claims the 27-year-old Aniene graduate in Business Economics – from January onwards I was always sick and I missed six months of training; when I could I only swam in the morning and in the last month I have tried to recover. In the heat I was hoping to do half a second less, in the semifinal I think I’ll go a little better. In the 100m I always have difficulty finding the right frequencies and the right stroke”.

Raniste

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Martina Carraro, already world bronze in 2019, and Lisa Angiolini, who is sixth and light in water, advance in the 100m breaststroke, author of 1’06″28, twenty-eight cents from the 1’06″00 signed in Rome for the European silver. “I felt good – says the Tuscan -. I wanted to go fast right away to understand where I am and not to risk staying out of the semi-final”. Carraro is 11th in 1’06”63. For the Azzurri one more reason to do well: it is the specialty of Benedetta Pilato’s title a year ago, who will only swim 50 ran in Japan. She flies within half a second of the world record, Lithuanian Olympian Ruta Meylutite in 1’04”67. “Good sensations and good race – says Martina, married to Fabio Scozzoli -. I was missing from the World Cup in South Korea, and it’s nice to be able to experience these emotions again”. Marco De Tullio reacts to the failed final in the 400 freestyle grabbing the semifinal of the 200 freestyle. The Bari native is 13th in 1’46”69 like the Korean Sunwoo Hwang and the German Rafael Mirsolav. The Texan Luke Hobson takes the lead in 1’45”69 ahead of the British Matthew Richards in 1’45”82 and the outgoing Romanian world champion David Popovici in 1’45”86. Stefano Di Cola is 24th in 1’47”27.

Waiting for Tete

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Today from 1 pm for today’s finals, Nicolò Martinenghi, the outgoing world champion of the 100 breaststroke, is also eagerly awaited.