Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Simone Cerasuolo had an explosive performance at the Italian SC Winter Championships this week that flew a little bit under the radar, downing a pair of World Junior Records in the men’s breaststroke events.
Highlighting the 18-year-old’s efforts was the 50 breast, where he joined the exclusive sub-26 club in a blazing time of 25.85.
Cerasuolo was already the World Junior Record holder in 26.26, having clocked that time at the Italian Regional Championships in April, but he absolutely annihilated that by over four-tenths on Tuesday in Riccione.
The 2021 European Junior champion (LCM) in the event, Cerasuolo is now tied for 14th all-time in the SCM 50 breast, and is just over two-tenths shy of the Italian Record of 25.62 set by Fabio Scozzoli in 2017.
Cerasuolo wasn’t competing at the European SC Championships in November, with Nicolo Martinenghi and Scozzoli representing Italy in the event, but if he was in the field, he would’ve been fifth, trailing only his Italian countrymates, co-world record holder Ilya Shymanovich and the third-fastest man ever, Emre Sakci.
Following his 50 breast performance, Cerasuolo set another WJR in the 100 breast, clocking 56.66 to lower Martinenghi’s record of 57.27 and beat the Olympic medalist head-to-head.
Italy continues to be a hotbed for producing world class breaststrokers, and Cerasuolo is the latest to make his presence felt on the international stage.