The 52nd annual Settecolli Internazionali d’Italia di Nuoto (2015 Sette Colli Trophy) is set to take place June 12-14th in Rome, Italy with some mighty matchups on the agenda.
There are some familiar faces not present at this year’s contest; for example, Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu opted for the Mare Nostrum Monaco stop and Spain’s Mireia Belmonte is taking precautions with shoulder issues. The meet is still an elite one with names like Florent Manaudou, Ruta Meilutyte, Sarah Sjostrom and Cameron Van der Burgh still scheduled to swim.
The powerhouse breaststrokers will be out in full force, as the women will see Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte take on the likes of Australia’s Sally Hunter, Italy’s Arianna Castiglioni, as well as America’s Emma Reaney. After the recent Mare Nostrum stop in Canet, Meilutyte is now the world’s number one breaststroke in both the 50m and and 100m distances in times of 29.88 and 1:05.46, respectively. She will no doubt be looking to continue strengthening her domination leading up to this year’s World Championships.
The men’s breaststroke races will also see some of the top competitors in the world trying to fend each other off, as South Africa’s Cameron Van der Burgh and Canada’s Richard Funk are slated to swim the 50, 100 and 200 distances over the course of the meet. Van der Burgh is currently ranked 3rd the world in the 50m distance (27.17) and 4th in the 100m distance (59.78), while Funk has yet to crack the minute-mark in the 100m thus far this year. However, without Van der Burgh’s Mare Nostrum nemesis Adam Peaty in the field, it will be interesting to see how fast the South African can push himself against home country swimmers Fabio Scozzoli and Andrea Toniato.
In the men’s 50m freestyle, France’s top sprinting stud, Florent Manaudou, will see if he can keep his “21 point” splash n’ dash streak alive, as he has consistently clocked the world’s top times in this event over the course of 2015 thus far. This includes the 21.57 world’s number one time he cranked out at the French Elite Nationals back in April, along with subsequent marks of 21.86 in Melun, 21.71 at the Golden Tour Marseille, and a 21.81 at the Golden Tour Amiens.
In a race as succinct as the 50m free, however, anything can happen, and the ever-present Trinidad and Tobago’s George Bovell will be ready to pounce and claim the gold, having already produced a 22.46 effort in Belgium just a week ago.. Italy’s own Luca Dotto, who recently competed at the Arena Pro Swim Series in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he managed to throw down a solid 22.40 for 9th place overall, but had earlier clocked a 22.12 at his country’s spring nationals.
The women’s sprinting contingent will also be in full force, with Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and Therese Alshammar, along with The Netherlands’ Inge Dekker and Ranomi Kromowidjojo ready to take on the international field. Sjostrom holds a whopping five top seeds – 50m/100m/200m freestyle, and 50m/100m butterfly events – which is just par for the course for this 22-year old. Sjostrom will attempt to defend her 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly titles she won at this meet last year.
Additional participants for which to keep an eye out include the other American swimmer, Cammile Adams, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, Canada’s Audrey Lacroix, Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Jakabos and Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda. Adams will be swimming, among others, her signature 200m butterfly event, while Pellegrini will take on a full schedule including the 50m and 100m butterfly and the 100m and 200m freestyle races. Matsuda comes in as the number two seed in the 200m butterfly and third seed in the 200m freestyle.
Arianna Castiglioni is from Italy