2018 European silver medalist Sarah Koehler of Germany has announced that she has signed with the Italian-based Aqua Centurions squad of the International Swimming League (ISL).
The 24-year old Koehler is a distance specialist who won the 2017 European title in the short course meters 800 freestyle, silver at the same meet in the 400, individual European long course silver in the 1500 free last summer, and a team open water silver last summer as well. While a World Championship and Olympic medal contender in the distance events, Koehler’s value in the ISL is somewhat limited by the fact that the longest freestyle race being swum in the series is the 400.
Best Times (LCM/SCM)
- 100 free – 57.07/55.42
- 200 free – 1:58.58/1:57.75
- 400 free – 4:03.96/3:59.12
- 800 free – 8:20.53/8:10.54 (non-ISL distance)
- 1500 free – 15:57.85/15:39.74 (non-ISL distance)
During the announcement of the formation of teams based in USA, the outline of the Italian team, which replaces the previously announced German team in year 1 of the league, was also formed.
League owner Konstantin Grigorishin, during the April 10th press conference, anticipated the fourth European team.
“Aqua Centurions” is the name of the Italian team, based in Rome.
The team hasn’t revealed the the full team’s members, but we already know that Federica Pellegrini is the ISL ambassador for Italy. She’s also the head of the team.
Some Italian athletes already committed for the league, and with an initial 30-day signing period where only the Italian team was able to sign Italian athletes, many are expected to join the Aqua Centurions.
They took part in the first ISL meeting, held in London in December 2018:
Europe has now for ISL teams:
- Energy Standard;
- London Roar
- Iron Swim Budapest
- Aqua Centurions
Originally, a German team called ONEflow Aquatic was announced, but the club wouldn’t be involved in the first year of the ISL.