Costanza Cocconcelli Becomes First Italian Woman Under 59 Seconds in 100 IM

Regional Short Course Championships Emilia Romagna

• Riccione, Italy
• April 24-25, 2021
• Short Course (25 meter pool)
• Results

Italy’s Olympic Trials concluded earlier this month, but that doesn’t mean the country has slowed down.

The nation that has been one of the best across the world since the 2016 Olympic Games had yet another National Record go down this weekend in Riccione, when Costanza Cocconcelli broke the national mark in the 100 IM.

Her time of 58.84 broke the old record that she set at the 2019 European Short Course Championships in 59.46.

That time for Cocconcelli still leaves her about half-a-second outside of the top 25 performers in history, but at only 18-years old, she has time to improve that standing.

After the race, Cocconcelli expressed delight at her result in her first time swimming the event in almost a year-and-a-half.

“I’m really super happy,” Cocconcelli said. “I was not expecting to swim this time in the morning. Even if it is true that I had not swum the 100 medley since December 2019 and having improved in all the other races I was hoping to repeat or swim close to my time. But 58.8 is much more than what I would have expected.”

She is registered with Fiamme Gialle and Azzurra 91 and trains with coach Fabrizio Bastelli.

While the 100 IM is not an Olympic event, Cocconcelli has shown promises in several other races. At the Italian Championships at the beginning of the month, she won the 50 free, finished 4th in the 100 free, and finished 2nd in the 50 back and 50 fly.

This weekend in Riccione, she won the 100 free (54.67) as well, coming up just three-tenths short of her best time from December.

That marks 4 total records broken by Italian swimmers in short course this weekend: at another regional championship in Pietralata, Rome, Silvia di Pietro broke national records in both the 50 fly (25.18) and 50 free (23.85). Also in Pietralata, Simona Quadarella tied the National Record in the 1500 free, swimming 15:29.74 to tie a time she swam in March.

Those are in addition to the World Junior Record swum by Simone Cerasuolo in Riccione.