2024 SETTE COLLI TROPHY
- Friday, June 21st – June 23rd
- Foro Italico Swimming Stadium, Rome, Italy
- LCM (50 meters)
- Italian Olympic Selection Policy
- Meet Central
- Entry List
- Live Results
The 2024 Sette Colli Trophy kicked off today from Rome, with nearly 900 athletes representing 52 nations racing in the Foro Italico Swimming Stadium in Rome, Italy.
We’ll see competitors from the host nation, Brazil, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland and more as the competition represents both a tune-up opportunity and a last-chance qualification meet for next month’s Olympic Games.
The Italian swimmers already qualified for Paris are listed at the bottom of this post. For those trying to add another event or initially qualify altogether, the World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Times serve as the time standards.
Italian athletes who manage to obtain OQTs do not automatically qualify, however. Swimmers will be considered for nomination as long as there are free slots available.
Day 1 Prelims
Performers wasted no time bringing the heat this morning, including in the men’s 400m free where an impressive 9 swimmers already notched outings under the 3:50 barrier.
Leading the charge was two-time World Championships gold medalist Daniel Wiffen, with the 22-year-old producing a cool 3:48.42 to land lane 4.
Guilherme Costa, the Brazilian who placed 4th in this event in Doha, nabbed the 2nd seed in 3:48.46 while Italy’s Matteo Lamberti was also among the top 3 in 3:48.78.
Lamberti is seeking his first 2024 Olympic berth and will need to be in the 3:44-range to make it happen. The 25-year-old owns a lifetime best of 3:46.03 from 2023 so he’ll need to put up the swim of his life in this evening’s finals to accomplish the feat.
Belgian national record holder Lucas Henveaux (3:49.38) lurks as the 6th seed in 3:49.38 while Olympic medalist Gabriele Detti missed the A-Final, placing 9th in 3:49.73.
The women’s 200m free field was originally set to include Olympic champions Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Penny Oleksiak of Canada, along with Dutch ace Marrit Steenbergen but all 3 opted out of the heats.
Instead, it was Canada’s rapidly improving Mary-Sophie Harvey who stole the show, clocking a morning swim of 1:57.64. That represented the sole performance of the field under 1:58 as a solid follow-up to the massive 1:55.44 she logged at this year’s Canadian Trials to qualify for Paris.
British 400m IM world champion Freya Colbert collected the 2nd seed in 1:58.12, joined by teammates Abbie Wood and Freya Anderson who earned the 4th and 5th seeds in respective efforts of 1:58.85 and 1:58.87.
Sitting as the 3rd seed, however, is Hong Kong dynamo and two-time Olympic silver medalist Siobhan Haughey. The former University of Michigan Wolverine notched 1:58.25 but has already been as fast as 1:54.08 this season to rank 4th in the world.
In another head-turning prelim, a massive 7 male swimmers dipped under the minute barrier in the 100m breaststroke sprint.
Italy’s Ludovico Viberti was the fastest, producing an AM effort of 59.48, a result just .10 outside of his best-ever performance from last year.
British champion and current world record holder Adam Peaty was right behind in 59.54 for a strong swim while Federico Poggio clocked 59.55 as the 3rd seed. Poggio has been as fast as 58.73 in this career to rank as the #2 Italian performer in history.
Additional finalists included Dutch teammates Caspar Corbeau (59.65) and Arno Kamminga (59.75) while Italian national record holder Nicolo Martinenghi lurks as the 5th seed in 59.73.
After firing off a mark of 50.94 just last week at the Dutch Long Course Championships, 25-year-old Nyls Korstanje of the Netherlands ripped a time of 51.14 to come within striking distance of that result in the men’s 100m fly.
Korstanje currently holds over a one-second advantage on the field, with Ireland’s Max McCusker notching 52.38 as the 2nd seed out of this morning’s heats. McCusker posted the current national record of 51.90 at May’s Irish Championships.
Chad Le Clos of South Africa, Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Mussin, and Italy’s Piero Codia all tied for 8th in 52.48 so we’ll most likely see a swim-off to secure the final slot for tonight’s main event.
Additional Notes
- Michele Lamberti turned in a time of 54.17 to lead the men’s 100m backstroke pack, but countryman and reigning world record holder Thomas Ceccon was right behind in 54.41. Jonny Marshall, who represents Great Britain internationally but is also a Florida Gator, claimed the 6th seed in 55.07.
- Dutch teammates Maaike de Waard and Kira Toussaint landed the 1st and 2nd seed in the women’s 50m back. The former touched in 28.26 to the latter’s 28.32.
- Swedish superstar Sarah Sjostrom logged a time of 25.22 in the women’s 50m fly to take the top spot. Rikako Ikee of Japan was next in 25.54 while Italy’s Viola Scotto di Carlo rounded out the top 3 performers in this non-Olympic event in 26.99. Sjostrom’s season-best is a world-leading 24.63 from the World Championships.
- The men’s 50m free was void of any sub-22-second results, as newly-minted Dutch competitor Renzo Tjon-a-Joe, formerly of Suriname, notched the top result in 22.13. Brazil’s Gui Caribe and the Netherlands’ Kenzo Simons tied for 2nd in 22.16 for this evening’s final.
Italian Athletes Qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics
Gregorio Paltrinieri in the 1500m and 800m freestyle
Alberto Razzetti in the 200m, 400m medley and 200m butterfly
Thomas Ceccon in the 100m backstroke
Benedetta Pilato in the 100m breaststroke
Alessandro Miressi in the 100m freestyle
Nicolò Martinenghi in the 100m breaststroke
Simona Quadarella in the 1500 and 800 freestyle
Manuel Frigo 4×100 freestyle
Lorenzo Zazzeri in the 50 freestyle
Sara Franceschi in the 400 medley
Lisa Angiolini in the 100 breaststroke
Leonardo Deplano in the 50 and 100 freestyle and in the 4×100 freestyle
Filippo Megli 4×200 freestyle
Sara Curtis 50 freestyle
Alessandro Ragaini 200 freestyle
Relays qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics
4×100 freestyle mas
4×100 freestyle female
4×100 mixed mixed
4×200 freestyle female
4×200 freestyle mas
4×100 freestyle mixed mas
4×100 mixed female
Can’t wait for Penny Oleksiak to swim that A OQT
Is Mateo Lamberti related to Giorgio Lamberti?
Yes, he’s his son
Yes, he is his son. His other son, Michele, is the fastest qualifier for the 100bk final later too.
Oh cool
Fun fact:
Giorgio Lamberti’s legendary 1:46.69 200 free WR was broken just months before its 10th anniversary by Grant Hackett (1:46.67) swimming relay lead off at some Australian meet in early 1999.
Mateo and Michele are Giorgio’s sons. They’re also coached by him.
Underlining the pointlessness of the European Championships this year!
I understand the timing is not great as it clashes with qualification meets for France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. I am however surprised that Aquatics GB decided not to send an established team. Unlike the sete colli, the Europeans follows the heats, semis, finals schedule over 2 days per event which I would assume is great prep for how it will be at the Olympics.
My guess is that having already taken a large squad to World’s in Feb, cost came into the decision making progress to focus on the much shorter sete colli meet instead.