Martina Carraro Wins Breaststroke Showdown to Finish Nico Sapio Trophy

THE 46TH ANNUAL NICO SAPIO TROPHY MEET – GENOA 

• Friday 8th – Saturday 9th November 2019
• Sciorba Sports Complex, Genoa, Liguria, Italy
• 25m (SCM)
• Prelims at 8:45AM Eastern Time/ Finals at 4:30PM (Friday), 4PM (Saturday), 5PM (Sunday)
• Psych Sheet (Friday)
• Psych Sheet (Saturday)
• Psych Sheet (Sunday)
• Live Results

Day 2 of the 2019 Nico Sapio Trophy saw 5 more swimmers stamp their passes to the European Short Course Swimming Championships and 4 swimmers break Meet Records.

Saturday’s New European Qualifiers:

• Matteo Ciampi, men’s 400 free – 3:39.64
• Marco Orsi, men’s 100 IM – 52.61
• Alberto Razzetti, men’s 200 fly – 1:52.91

Ciampi already earned his first qualification on Friday in the men’s 200 free, and he added another on Saturday in the 400 free by knocking over a full second from his previous lifetime best in the event (which was done at this meet last year).

As for the veteran sprinter Orsi, who missed the team for the World Championships, he continued to show that the 100 IM is his primary event later in his career. He swam a 52.61 to book his first and only qualification for the European Championships. He was the 2018 World Short Course Championships silver medalist in that event. His was also a new Meet Record.

And Alberto Razzetti polished off the day’s new qualifiers with a 1:52.91 in the men’s 200 fly. While that time was .11 seconds slower than his best, it was good enough to stamp his ticket for Glasgow. He too set a new Meet Record with his swim.

This brings Italy up to 30 qualified swimmers for the European Championships, which will be held from December 4th-7th.

The other highlight race of the day came in the women’s 100 breaststroke, which featured a battle royale between the women who, over the last week, have broken the Italian Records in the 100 breaststroke (Martina Carraro), 50 breaststroke (Benedetta Pilato), and 200 breaststroke (Francesca Fangio).

Carraro held her post and added this 100 breaststroke title to the one she won last week in Bolzano by finishing in 1:05.02, followed by Pilato (1:05.40) and Fangio (1:06.01). All 3 will likely be given the opportunity to race in prelims of this event in Glasgow anyway. Carraro’s Italian Record of 1:04.68 was set a week ago.

Other Day 2 Highlights:

• German swimmer Marco Koch won the men’s 200 breaststroke in a relative runaway and broke the Meet Record with a 2:05.01. That beat the old mark of 2:06.84 that was set in 2018 by Luca Pizzini. In the 200 breaststroke, he has been up-and-down all season long. His best of 2:04.27 was done at the Budapest stop of the ISL. In spite of being fast enough to win, that was still about a second slower than what he was going at this time last season.
• Lorenzo Tarocchi broke one of the oldest Meet Records still standing, taking out the 400 IM mark with a 4:07.07. That broke the 2004-set record of 4:08.74 by Alessio Boggiato, who was a 4-time European Champion (and 1-time World Champion) in the 400 IM across short course and long course competitions. In spite of the record, Tarocchi was still short of both his personal best and the qualifying time for Glasgow.
• Simona Quadarella, who is racing this week in memory of a group of fallen firefighters, cruised to a win and a new Meet Record in the women’s 800 free in 8:12.19. The old record of 8:15.69 was set last year.
• After breaking the Italian Record in the 200 backstroke on Friday (1:50.45), Lorenzo Mora won the men’s 100 backstroke on Saturday. No record this time – his 50.58 was 9-tenths of a second away from Simone Sabbioni’s mark – but he did knock off Brazil’s Guilherme Guido, who is having a career resurgence in his 30s. Guido was 2nd in 50.80 after breaking the Meet Record in prelims (50.02).