2025 Italian Championships Day 1 Prelims Recap: Angiolini Impresses In 100 Breast

2025 ITALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Riccione – Swimming Stadium Pool
• April 13–17, 2025
• Prelims at 10am local (4am ET)/Senior Finals at 6pm local (12pm ET)
• World Championships Qualification
• SwimSwam Italia Event Page
• Entries
• Live Results
• Livesteam

The 2025 Italian Championships kicked off today from Riccione with the competition representing the primary qualification opportunity for this summer’s World Championships.

As a refresher on qualification, the top two athletes may be selected to the Italian roster, provided they meet or exceed the Italian Swimming Federation-mandated time standards listed below.

Relay qualification works slightly differently. Both women’s and men’s must reach a minimum total time, calculated by adding the times of the first four swimmers classified in the Final A here.

Day 1 Prelims Highlights

The men’s 50m backstroke was extremely competitive, with the top 10 performers out of the heats all under the 26-second barrier.

Leading the way was 19-year-old Christian Bacico, who produced a top-seeded effort of 25.24, already a new personal best.

Bacico’s previous PB sat the 25.33 notched last summer. He’ll need to rip the swim of his life in order to approach the Italian Federation-mandated qualification time of 24.59.

Daniele Del Signore and Francesco Lazzari claimed the 2nd and 3rd seeds with respective morning swims of 25.30 and 25.61.

As a reminder, Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon is not competing at these championships. Instead, he’s been granted permission to achieve qualification at the Australian Open National Championships taking place in just over a week.

The world shook with excitement yesterday as Germany’s Lukas Märtens unexpectedly downed the supersuited World Record in the men’s 400m free at the Swim Open Stockholm.

The Italian men’s 4free field took to the water this morning on the heels of that performance, with Marco De Tullio clocking 3:51.67 to lead the pack.

Matteo Diodato earned 2nd seeded status in 3:52.49 and Alberto Ferrazza nabbed the 3rd seed in 3:53.16.

Gabriele Detti, Matteo Ciampi and Luca De Tullio were among the men entered but who wound up not diving in for this morning’s prelims.

Detti, Massimiliano Rosolino and Marco De Tullio represent the only Italian swimmers to have ever delved under the 3:44.6 qualification time in the history of Italian swimming.

Olympic medalist Federico Burdisso was the top men’s 200m butterfly performer, registering a mark of 1:57.00 to land lane 4 for tonight’s final.

Alberto Razzetti was just over a half a second behind, producing 1:57.71 to flank Burdisso while Alessandro Ragaini, just 18 years of age, will be on the other side with his morning result of 1:57.76.

Burdisso represents the fastest Italian thus far this season, having put up a time of 1:56.72 at the Geneva Challenge in January.

The former Northwestern swimmers’ lifetime best and current Italian record rests at the 1:54.28 he logged en route to earning silver at the 2021 European Championships.

Razzetti is Italy’s #2 best-ever, owning a PB of 1:54.51 from the semi-finals at last year’s Olympic Games.

Italy’s 3rd-fastest man, Giacomo Carini will also be in tonight’s mix. He earned the 6th seed in 1:58.48 but owns a career-quickest time of 1:54.34 from last June.

On the women’s side of the house, 29-year-old Lisa Angiolini made her presence known en route to capturing the top spot in the 100m breaststroke.

Angiolini put up a strong swim of 1:06.38, a result within striking distance of her best-ever outing of 1:06.00 put on the books well over 2 years ago.

27-year-old Arianna Castiglioni is in the hunt, sitting just over half a second back in 1:07.00 while Anita Bottazzo was the 3rd-swiftest in the morning with 1:07.62.

Olympian Benedetta Pilato is in a comfortable 5th-seeded position with 1:07.74.

Angiolini now ranks 3rd in the world this season with the final yet to come.

Additional Notes

• Just one man dipped under the 22-second barrier in this morning’s heats of the 50m freestyle. National record holder Leonardo Deplano proved fastest, registering 21.93 as the man to beat. Lorenzo Zazzeri was next to the wall in 22.06 and Andrea Candela hit 22.22 for the 3rd seed. Alessandro Miressi lurks as the 4th-seeded athlete with a morning mark of 22.25.
• The women’s 400m IM heats saw Anna Pirovano score the top seed in 4:49.14 with Francesca Fresia next in 4:50.52 with just 12 swimmers in the heats overall. They’re chasing a stiff qualification time of 4:38.1, a time Fresia has neared with her PB of 4:38.93 from last year’s championships.