Italian sprinter Marco Orsi has broken a pair of Italian Records this weekend in Riccione at the Italian Winter Championships.
The Championships were a long course event, but included a short course time trial on Sunday, meaning that Orsi was able to further test his skill, coming off of a World Short Course Championships where he took a silver medal in the 50 free.
First, in the long course swimming, Orsi posted a 21.64 in the 50 meter freestyle, breaking his own 21.82 that has stood since the 2009 Italian Championships in a polyurethane suit.
The 24-year old would say after the swim that “this was the time he wanted…After a silver in the 50 free at the World Championships in Doha, I wanted to confirm the result in long course. I was able to express all that I have inside and to show my potential even in the 100.”
Orsi was referencing there the 48.16, which makes him the second-fastest in the event in Italian history behind only a 2009 Filipo Magnini 48.04.
Then on Sunday, in a regional qualifier for the team championship, also in Riccione, Orsi broke another National Record, swimming a 46.12 in the 100 short course meter freestyle. That broke Magnini’s old record of 46.26, done at the 2009 European Championships.
Orsi’s old personal bests in those races were the 21.82 in the 50 long course free, 48.76 in the 100 long course free, and 46.40 in the 100 short course free.
Full results from the Italian Championships are available here.
I am really sorry but this is not Orsi in the picture above, it is german Markus Deibler.
If by the second fastest time “in Italian history” you mean “on Italian soil” (well, not really soil …), you are correct. If you mean by an Italian swimmer, you are not: Magnini swam 48.12 to claim gold in Montreal 2005. So this is the third fastest.
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