2024 ITALIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
The final day of Italian Short Course Championships action is unfolding ni Riccione and we already saw a new national record right off the bat.
Racing in the first event of the evening, the women’s 50m freestyle, Sara Curtis fired off a new Italian standard in the women’s 50m freestyle.
18-year-old Curtis stopped the clock at 23.77 to score the sole time of the field under the 24-second barrier.
Silvia Di Pietro was next to the wall in 24.17 while Belgium’s Florine Gaspard rounded out the podium in 24.39.
Di Pietro held the former national record with the 23.83 notched in December 2022 so teenager Curtis managed to slice .06 off that result to register the new mark. Curtis’ result dips under the 23.9 needed to qualify for next month’s Short Course World Championships.
Curtis nearly broke the women’s 100m free Italian record earlier in the competition, producing a time of 52.37 to come within .27 of Olympic icon Federica Pellgrini‘s record of 52.10.
Curtis already owns the long course meters 50 freestyle Italian record, courtesy of the 24.56 logged at the Italian Championships earlier this year.
