While competing at the Mario Battistelli Trophy over the weekend, Italian elite racer Simona Quadarella notched a new National Record in the short course meters 1500 freestyle. The 19-year-old registered a winning time of 15:44.76 to shave over 2 seconds off of the previous mark of 15:47.33 which she set at Manifestazione Regionale Inverno di Categoria in January 2018.
Quadarella’s mark now overtakes the top spot in the world rankings, beating Aussie Madeline Gough’s former world-leading effort of 15:49.91 from her nation’s Short Course World Championships Trails. Quadarella, Gough and Slovenia’s Tjasa Oder (15:59.59) represent the only women in the world that have cracked 16:00 in the event thus far in 2018.
The Italian’s performance checks-in as the teen’s first short course National Record, but her second NR overall. She already notched a new national standard in the 800m free en route to gold at this year’s European Championships in Glasgow. At that Championships, Quadarella clocked 8:16.45 to top the podium in a sweep of distance freestyle events in which she also took gold in the 400m and 1500m.
The year earlier, Quadarella had taken bronze in the LCM version of the 1500 free at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest.