Italy a dream in the 4×50 freestyle mixed: gold and world record

Italy screamed at the European Short Course Championships in Lublin. The 4×50 freestyle mixed, in fact, is champion of Europe with a crazy world record that erases by seven hundredths the 1’1’27″33 sealed by France at the World Championships in Melbourne. A fantastic solo from the first meter with Leonardo Deplano throwing in 20″97 as always solid and third at the changeover in the wake of Croatia (-27/100) and Hungary (-4/100); the comeback is signed by the two captains Lorenzo Zazzeri (20″51) and Silvia Di Pietro (23″07) who put the thirty-fifth medal between world and European championships around her neck; closing entrusted to the dragonfly Sara Curtis (22″71) who with elegance and explosiveness leaves the competition behind.

Luca Giorgetti

A golden relay swimming as fast as anyone ever has in history and erasing the Italian record of 1’28″28 swum by Alessandro Miressi, Jasmine Nocentini and the same Zazzeri and Di Pietro for silver at the 2023 European Championships in Otopeni. For Italnuoto, it is the 27th world record, 14th in short pool: a history that is always updated in the sign of victories. On the podium go Hungary in 1’28″04, 78 hundredths away from the Azzurri, and the Netherlands, dragged in the last fraction by Valerie Van De Roon’s 23″14, in 1’28″42, 38 hundredths away from the Hungarian relay and more than a tenth away from the Italian one.

The Italian team was the first to win the event.

At the end of the race, the first to take the floor was Di Pietro (Carabinieri/CC Aniene), who the more she says she wants to stop, the stronger she goes. “An’incredible emotion– admitted the 32-year-old Roman swimmer -. We thought about it in these hours but we didn”t think we were really going so strong. Incredulous Deplano (Carabinieri/CC Aniene) who acknowledged the merit of Zazzeri and Di Pietro, who turned out to be decisive in the comeback: “We could have even gone faster, because I was hoping to open better. It was great Lorenzo and Silvia came back. It is not every day you swim a world record”.

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Committed but always smiling Curtis (Army/CS Roero): “It&#8217s been cool. I believed in it until the end, despite an imperfect turn but that&#8217s just fine. We were outstanding”. Closing entrusted to Zazzeri (Esercito/RN Florentia) silent and elegant leader of a National team always at the top: “We wanted it at all costs. We repeated it to each other at lunch, that we could make the world record. For me it is a dream to link my name to this relay, with SIlvia who is a source of inspiration for the whole group; I have great esteem for Sara who is as optimistic as few. Leonardo deserves it because he&#8217s a golden boy”.