The 46th Annual Nico Sapio Trophy Meet – Genoa
- Friday 8th – Sunday 10th November 2019
- Sciorba Sports Complex, Genoa, Liguria, Italy
- 25m (SCM)
- Prelims at 8:45AM Eastern Time/ Finals at 4:30PM (Friday), 4PM (Saturday), 5PM (Sunday)
- Psych Sheet (Friday)
- Psych Sheet (Saturday)
- Psych Sheet (Sunday)
- Live Results
The 46th Annual Nico Sapio Trophy Meet will see over 1500 athletes racing this weekend at the Sciorba Sports Complex in Genoa, Italy. The meet is another opportunity for athletes to qualify for the 2019 LEN European Short Course Championships in Glasgow, which takes place in the Tollcross International Swimming Centre from December 4th-8th. Here are 5 storylines to follow:
1. Women’s 400m Freestyle Duel
1500m freestyle World Champion Simona Quadarella is in action tomorrow in the 400m free against defending champion, Erica Musso. Musso won this event last year in a time of 4.00.44, over two seconds ahead of Quadarella (4.02.86). Quadarella’s strengths lie in the longer distances, but it’ll be interesting to see if she has the speed to out-touch Musso this weekend.
2. All Eyes on 14-year-old Benedatta Pilato
Also racing tomorrow is junior superstar Benedatta Pilato, who earlier this year became the ninth woman ever to swim sub 30 seconds (29.98) in the 50m breaststroke. Pilato won gold at both the European Junior and World Junior Championships this summer in the 50m breast, which led to qualification for the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Here she pipped Russia’s Yuliya Efimova to win silver in the 50m breaststroke. Pilato will race Italian Record Holder Martina Carraro in the 50m and 100m breaststroke this weekend. She is also up in the 100m medley.
3. Jam-Packed Men’s Breaststroke Events
The men’s breaststroke events will be jam-packed this weekend with an array of European, World and Olympic medalists taking part – even if they’re not all primarily breaststrokers. Among the interlopers will be Matteo Rivolta, Matthew Josa, Marco Orsi, Marcus Schlesinger and César Cielo Filho. Also joining the breaststroke events this weekend is German breaststroke specialist Marco Koch, who will make his first ever appearance at this competition. He is the former 200m breaststroke World Champion (2015), and is the favourite to win this weekend.
4. Laszlo Cseh’s 10 – Swim Weekend
Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh has the busiest schedules this weekend, competing in a total of 10 events across the two days. He will face America’s Matthew Josa in the men’s 200m IM, as well as Italian favourite Alberto Razzetti who will all contest for the podium’s top spot.
5. Qualifcation for European Short Course
A total of 24 Italian athletes have already qualified for this year’s European Championships. The window closes on November 17th, meaning this competition is one of the last opportunities to make the cut. The full list of athletes who have already qualified and the selection criteria can both be found here.
Does anyone have any insight into what Laszlo’s goal for… anything… is at this point? Is he just swimming for the fun of it now?
I think above all for fun. Surely I had no fun in reading this article: Quadrella written 3 times instead of Quadarella, the first name of Pilato is Benedetta not Benedatto and, the most incredible from a swimming point of view, considering Rivolta, Orsi, Josa, Schlesinger and Cesar Filho as breastroke specialists…, when, obviously, they are free and fly specialists.