Ceccon and the Men’s 4×100 Free Relay Down Italian Records at Day 2 Prelims

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
  • Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
• Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
• Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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Italy saw a pair of national records fall during the 2nd prelims session in Tokyo. Backstroker Thomas Ceccon had an excellent prelims performance in the men’s 100 back, taking 0.35 seconds off his previous best which was also the Italian Record. After that, the Italian squad led the heats in the men’s 4×100 free relay.

MEN’S 100 BACKSTROKE – PRELIMS

• World Record: Ryan Murphy (USA) – 51.85 (2016)
• Olympic Record: Ryan Murphy (USA) – 51.85 (2016)
• World Junior Record: Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS) – 52.53 (2018)
• 2016 Olympic Champion: Ryan Murphy (USA) – 51.97
• SwimSwam Event Preview – Men’s 100 Backstroke

1. Kliment Kolesnikov (ROC), 52.15
2. Thomas Ceccon (ITA), 52.49
3. Xu Jiayu (CHN), 52.70
4. Mitch Larkin (AUS), 52.97
5. Ryosuke Irie (JPN), 52.99
6. Yohann Ndoye Brouard (FRA), 53.13
7. Ryan Murphy (USA) / Evgeny Rylov (ROC), 53.22
8. –
9. Hugo Gonzalez (ESP), 53.45
10. Mewen Tomac (FRA), 53.49
11. Guilherme Guido (BRA), 53.65
12. Robert Glinta (ROU), 53.67
13. Isaac Cooper (aus), 53.73
14. Marek Ulrich (GER), 53.74
15. Hunter Armstrong (USA) / Apostolos Christou (GRE), 53.77
16. –

Ceccon took the #2 seed for today’s semifinals, beating out some huge names. Ceccon bested his own national record by .35 seconds. He posted a 26.86 on the 2nd 50, which was the fastest 2nd 50 split in the field this morning.

MEN’S 4×100 FREESTYLE RELAY – PRELIMS

• World Record: USA (Phelps, Weber-Gale, Jones, Lezak) – 3:08.24 (2008)
• Olympic Record: USA (Phelps, Weber-Gale, Jones, Lezak) – 3:08.24 (2008)
• World Junior Record: USA (Magahey, Urlando, Chaney, Foster) – 3:15.80 (2019)
• 2016 Olympic Champion: USA (Dressel, Phelps, Held, Adrian) – 3:09.92
• SwimSwam Event Preview – Men’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay

1. Italy, 3:10.29
2. United States, 3:11.33
3. Australia, 3:11.89
4. France, 3:12.35
5. Brazil, 3:12.59
6. Hungary, 3:12.73
7. Canada, 3:13.00
8. ROC, 3:13.13

Italy was well ahead of the field this morning in the 4×100, clocking the fastest time of the morning by over a second. Their swim of 3:10.29 took 1.1 seconds off the previous Italian Record of 3:11.39, which was set at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. The only personnel difference between this prelims relay, and the 2019 Worlds relay is that Lorenzo Zazzeri swam today instead of Luca Dotto. Here is a split comparison between the previous Italian Record and their prelims swim:

The key difference here is the improvement on the lead-off leg. The rise of Alessandro Miressi individually in the 100 free has allowed Italy to stick him on the lead-off position, which resulted in a lead-off that was 1.26 seconds faster in prelims today than it was at 2019 Worlds.