II International Meet Tiro A Volo Nuoto (TVN Meet)
- Thursday, June 2nd – Saturday, June 4th
- Stadio del Nuoto Rome, Rome, Itlay
- Meet Site/Start List/Schedule
- Results
The 2016 edition of the International Meet Tiro a Volo Nuoto (TVN Meet) taking place in Rome, Italy got underway today, with one notable American name among the mix of Italian talent. 17-year-old Olympic hopeful Michael Andrew took part in the sprint races today, knocking down notable swims in each as a tune-up for Omaha’s Trials at the end of the month.
The Indie Swimming teenage speedster went three for three in terms of meet records, kicking off the competition with a swift prelims win in the men’s 50m freestyle race. Andrew entered the meet with the top seed and didn’t let the crowd down, stopping the clock at a solid 22.52. That time ties the youngster’s 7th-fastest of his career, which includes a best time of 22.33 from January at the Pro Swim Austin.
Andrew also notched prelims wins in the men’s 50m backstroke and 50m breaststroke events, racking up meet records in each of those as well. In the backstroke, the event in which Andrew is the reigning World Junior Champion, Andrew touched in 25.53 to take the top seed and put the field on notice. That falls within Andrew’s personal top 10 times of his career.
In the breaststroke splash n’ dash, Andrew notched a time of 27.82 for his 3rd meet record of the first day’s session and a new personal best in the event. Entering the meet, Andrew’s swiftest 50m breaststrok outing was that of the 27.89 he threw down just this past March at NCSAs, but he was able to drop .07 off that mark to end the day on a fast note.
The only finals taking place on day 1 were the distance freestyle events. The women’s 800m freestyle was won by Silvia Ciccarella in a new meet record time of 8:54.11, while Domenico Acerenza earned the field’s only sub-16-minute 1500m freestyle time for the men, taking the event in 15:35.96.
Read through the comments. I think everyone knows I’m a longtime M-Andrew supporter. I got to know the entire family several years back, and they’re very sweet people, fun-loving… Travel to meets for them is not like travel for other athletes. They do it so much, they’re use to it… I’m not sure about traveling to Italy, but Michael’s a pro, and this meet may have made more sense to a pro swimmer….. I think we all want see Michael swim 100s, but, as expected, he’s continuing to show improvement. I expect he’ll perform well in Omaha, and like his peer Reece Whitley, any experience in Omaha will bode well for his future.
Mel, he swam 4 meet records today.
http://www.tvnmeet.com/index.php/en/download/tvn-meet-record
And he missed the WJR in the 50 BR by .01
Since last year I fear that he specializes in the 50-meter races.
Great times, especially the 50BR! I’m a little surprised he made such a long trip only a few weeks before Trials, it’s slightly risky but who wants any additional risk for Trials??
I believe he has sponsors in Italy so he might have been killing two birds with one stone by swimming in the meet. Anyone know more?
I know nothing, but my first thought reading this was the same as the prior poster. This is a long trip and many time zones off. Seems like a taxing event to schedule so close to trials. Then again, he’s 17 and maybe I’m stuck on the perspective of how awful international travel makes me feel for about a week after a long trip and back.
Right, the time zones, plus the further the trip, the higher the odds of infection. Like Maverick, I figured it had to do with a professional commitment but if he gets sick or off his game as a result of this, they may be re-thinking their requirements. One thing about Andrew is that in addition to being younger and hardier than us, he’s been criss-crossing the country for meets a lot more than the average swimmer and even went to compete in South Africa for awhile last year, so if anybody’s used to travel it’s him. But it’s still cutting it a bit close I think.
He’s risking little. Healthy or not, he’s a long shot to make the US team in the 100 breaststroke, and has pretty much no shot in any other event. I like MA a lot, but I just don’t think it’s his time yet. In the meantime, he has to earn a living for himself and his family. I don’t expect to see him doing something like this before the 2020 trials.
While these are great times for the sprint events, Andrew needs to swim more 100s of his strokes in order to gauge how good he is in the olympic events. He can’t swim a 50 breast at trials 🙂
I was just going to say that. He is just doing what he is good at. Puts him right about 1:00.50 for his 100Br which isn’t bad and he keeps pushing this summer he will be close to 1:00 by the first week of August
How do you estimate that he would drop .50 in 2 months at his skill level?
I am going off last summers progression from starting 101 high down to 100.68 He did it in two months of summer racing so I am just assuming if he does a similar thing he is going to drop a half second. He is 17 and really motivated so I dont think its a stretch…trials alone could put him down there. 1:03.49 July 2014 to 1:00.68 August 2015 to Aug 2016 ?? Are people really predicting that he is going to add this summer? We can see his start point for summer this weekend and then we have a better idea.
He’s young enough that even at his level, a drop like that would not seem unreasonable.
It seems a bit odd to me that he’s swimming 50’s, but near as I can tell those were his only options today outside the 1500m. Maybe we’ll see some 100’s/200’s in the next day or two.
I think you meant 22.52 in the 50 free. Not 25.52.
Thank you! We updated with 22.52!