Thomas Ceccon goes down flat in closing Worlds

Thomas Ceccon grooms blue swimming team

Among the stars of the Fukuoka World Swimming Championships, thanks to a gold medal in the 50 butterfly and silvers in the 100 backstroke and the 4×100 freestyle, Thomas Ceccon missed out on a poker of medals by finishing fifth in the 50 backstroke on the final day of competition.

Drawing a balance sheet of his experience and, more generally, of the Italian expedition to Japan, the 22-year-old did not back down and expressed his thoughts rather harshly: “I heard an interview of Nicolò, this morning – he began, at the microphones of ‘Rai Sport’, referring to Martinenghi -. He said, talking about himself, that he lacked a little bit of desire, a little bit of determination. Here, this thing in my opinion applies not only to him, but a little bit to the whole team.”

“We come from two fantastic years, it’s always difficult to repeat ourselves,” Ceccon then argued. “Maybe someone slowed down this year to find the best possible form next year, for the Olympic Games: however, it’s wrong to do that, because okay, I’m also aiming for the Olympics, but I came here and did practically my best times, except the backstroke.

“If you work the whole year well, in the international competition you do well. Word to the wise… I don’t want to say more, but we have to work on it, there are technical and team details that still need to be perfected,” the 50 butterfly world champion then concluded.