CAMPIONATO ITALIANO DI CATEGORIA J/C/S 2021
- August 4th – August 8th
- Roma, Stadio del Nuoto
- 50m (LCM)
- START LIST
- SwimSwam Italia preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Results
The men’s 200m freestyle at these Italian Category Championships saw a swift performance thrown down by 28-year-old Stefano Ballo. The Caserta native produced a winning effort of 1:46.91, representing the only swimmer of the 200m free field to get under the 1:47 threshold, let alone the 1:48 barrier.
Ballo opened in 52.59 and closed in 54.32 to register his 1:46.91, the 5th fastest time of his career. The next closest competitor in today’s race was Matteo Lamberti who posted 1:48.56, while Mattia Zuin rounded out the top 3 in 1:48.86.
Ballo is coming straight off the Tokyo Olympic Games where he competed in the men’s 200m freestyle individual event. After hitting a time of 1:45.80 to claim the 7th seed out of the heats in Toyo, he added .04 to claim the 10th spot overall after the semi-finals.
However, Ballo’s big performance came in the mens’ 4x200m free relay where he led off Team Italy with a lifetime best of 1:45.77. That opener rendered Ballo as Italy’s 2nd fastest 200m freestyle performer of all time.
Additional Notes:
- Yesterday’s big-time 100m breaststroke winner Arianna Castiglioni doubled up with gold in the 50m breast tonight in a time of 30.58. She owns a lifetime best of 30.06 put up in just this past June.
- The men’s 50m back saw Michele Lamberti get it done for the top prize in a mark of 24.75. That’s a new career-fastest mark for him, slicing .15 off of his previous PB of 24.90 from December 2020. In fact, Lamberti’s effort now sits just .10 away from the longstanding Italian national record of 24.65, a time Niccolo Bonacchi put on the books back at the 2014 Italian Championships.