2025 ITALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
It was a quick third morning of prelims at the 2025 Italian Championships. Today, only the heats of the 200 IM and 100 freestyle took to the blocks, as well as the early heats of the men’s 800 freestyle and the women’s 1500 freestyle.
Sara Curtis leads the women’s 100 freestyle prelims. She narrowly missed the World Championships qualifying time as she won the 50 backstroke yesterday but wasted no time in the 100 freestyle, sailing under the FIN qualification standard with a lifetime 53.57. The swim destroys her previous lifetime best of 54.22, swum in July 2024, and marks her first time breaking the 54-second barrier. She’s the heavy favorite to pick up another gold this evening as she’s seven-tenths ahead of the second-fastest qualifier.
Manuel Frigo leads the men’s 100 freestyle prelims after clocking a 48.40. This is another event that’s missing 100 backstroke Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon. He’s a significant piece of Italy’s 4×100 freestyle relay, helping the team to a second-straight Olympic medal in Paris. He’ll compete for his Singapore qualification time later this month, which will surely factor on the relay decisions the Italian coaches make. However, in his absence in Riccone, Alessandro Miressi and Lorenzo Zazzeri are closely tracking Frigo. Their 48.56 and 48.57 morning swims put them .16 and .17 seconds, respectively, behind Frigo. Paolo Conte Bonin, part of Italy’s bronze medal-winning relay in Paris, sits sixth after prelims with a 49.12.
Olympian Sara Franceschi led the way in the women’s 200 IM, cruising to the top time with a 2:14.77 in the final heat. As the only woman to break 2:15 in the heats, she’s put herself in a favorable position heading into tonight’s final. The Worlds qualification time is a 2:11.1, which gives her a significant amount of work to do this evening. Franceschi has been under that benchmark five times in her career, though she was 2:11.29 this time last year.
Meanwhile, Alberto Razzetti has made his way back from Australia and sits second heading into the final of the men’s 200 IM. He cruised to a 2:00.99, .21 seconds behind top qualifier Massimiliano Matteazzi (2:00.78). Razetti owns the Italian record in this event with the 1:56.21 he swam at the 2023 Italian Championships. He’s been on strong form over the last year–particularly in the butterfly events–so it will be interesting to see how close he can get to that mark fresh off his training trip.
