2019 Italian Winter Championships
- Dec. 12-14, 2019
- Riccione (Italy) – Stadio del Nuoto
- LCM (50m course)
- Entry Lists
- Live Stream
- Results
Nicolo Martinenghi and Simona Quadarella have punched their proverbial tickets to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, hitting Italian selection standards at the nation’s Winter Championships.
The Winter Championships are the first of two Olympic qualifying events for Italy. These carry very tough selection times, and those who don’t make it through this round will have another chance (with slightly softer selection times) at the Italian Championships in March.
Martinenghi won the 100 breast on day 1, going 58.75 to lower his own national record. The 20-year-old Martinenghi had previously been 59.01. He won the Italian winter title by eight tenths of a second over Federico Poggio (59.58), with Fabio Scozzoli third in 59.80.
The other Olympic qualifier on the day was Simona Quadarella, the distance standout who was 15:57.18 in the 1500 free. That’s still well off her Italian record 15:40.89, but easily got under the Olympic selection time of 16:10.0.
Other notable day 1 winners:
- Silvia di Pietro took the 50 fly in 26.41, touching out Elena di Liddo (26.58) by a tenth. Di Pietro would also win the 50 free at the end of the session in 24.95. That’s just a tenth off her national record, but six tenths off the Olympic selection time of 24.3.
- In the men’s 50 fly, it was a tie between Matteo Milli and Simone Sabbioni. Both went 25.17.
- That was one of two national championship ties on the day. Martina Carraro and Arianna Castiglioni also shared the women’s 100 breast gold, both going 1:07.20. Olympic selection was 1:06.4.
- Stefania Pirozzi won the 400 free in 4:10.09, and Gabriele Detti (3:47.04) won for the men, outlasting Marco de Tullio (3:47.18), but missing the selection time of 3:44.8.
- Silvia Scalia won the women’s 50 back in 28.49.
- Piero Codia took the men’s 100 fly, going 52.10 to beat Matteo Rivolta (52.38). Both were well off the tough selection time of 51.0.
- Luca Dotto won the 50 free in 21.99, four tenths from Olympic selection.
Vid?
The only one I could find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqWW_lVrpxM
Maybe Ledecky has skewed my sense of what a “fast” 1500 is, but 24.3 for the women’s 50 and then 16:10 for the 1500 do not seem equivalent in terms of qualifying times.
In December, the limit for 1500 women is 16.00
The qualifying times for December were set based on the time of the 5th classified in Gwangju’s finals 😉
That’s ambitious for any country.
Nah, a qualification 9 months before the main event need to be as tough as possibile. There are only two spot so…
The once shining junior swimmer begins to shine at senior level after a period of stagnation. Happy for him.
A lot like minna atherton
He went through a stress fracture in the pubic bone that forced him to stop training for several months since April 2018.
Won’t even ask how that happened, but guessing Italian Stallion might be a new nickname..
Ugh, that sounds painful, especially for swimming breastroke.
Period of stagnation in the results also because Martinenghi was seriously injured at the beginning of 2018.
Great race in the men’s 400 free, with three swimmers at 3’47” (Matteo Ciampi was third with his new PB of 3.47.41) and even more interesting is the fact that only Detti was aiming the selection time: 19 year-old Marco de Tullio, fifth at last Worlds with 3.44.8, didn’t finalize his preparation for this event. So, northeless his training regimen, De Tullio swam a 3.47.1 extremely promising looking at the Nats on March 2020 and then, hopefully, the Olympics. Also Ciampi, a classy swimmer, has made a strong improvement in this first LC event, at December, so the Italian 400 free appears… Read more »
This is a big swim