2025 EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- December 2-7, 2025
- Lublin, Poland
- SCM (25 meters)
- Meet Central
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- Live Results
- Live Recaps:
The Italians won their second relay in as many nights on Wednesday at the European Short Course Championships in Lublin, edging out the Dutch for gold to successfully defend their title and set a new Championship Record in the mixed 4×50 medley relay.
Italy led from the get-go, and despite being overtaken by the Netherlands on the fly leg, they moved back to the front on the anchor leg thanks to a sizzling split from Sara Curtis.
Francesco Lazzari led off in 22.88 to give Italy the early lead, and then Simone Cerasuolo delivered a 25.67 breast leg to slightly extend the advantage, with Poland sitting a close 2nd and Denmark in 3rd, as they were the only three nations to have their two male athletes swim the first two legs.
Silvia di Pietro dropped a 24.62 fly split for Italy, though Dutchman Sean Niewold delivered a 22.27 for the Netherlands, taking the lead and handing off to Marrit Steenbergen, who dove in with a one-tenth of a second lead over Curtis.
Niewold was in a position to grab the lead from di Pietro thanks to a stunning 24.78 breast split from Caspar Corbeau, which, based on our research, is the second-fastest split of all-time, only trailing the 24.72 leg produced by Ilya Shymanovich on the Belarusian mixed medley relay at the 2021 SC Euros.
Curtis split 22.92 to overtake Steenbergen (23.11) and claim the win for the Italians in a time of 1:36.09, breaking the Championship Record of 1:36.18 set by the Dutch back in 2021 (which was a world record at the time).
The Dutch team of Maaike de Waard, Corbeau, Niewold and Steenbergen tied their National Record in 1:36.18 to win the silver medal.
Split Comparison: Italy vs Netherlands
| Italy, 2025 | Netherlands, 2025 |
| Francesco Lazzari – 22.88 | Maaike de Waard – 26.02 |
| Simone Cerasuolo – 25.67 | Caspar Corbeau – 24.78 |
| Silvia di Pietro – 24.62 | Sean Niewold – 22.27 |
| Sara Curtis – 22.92 | Marrit Steenbergen – 23.11 |
| 1:36.09 | 1:36.18 |
On last night’s 200 free relay, Steenbergen split 22.89 and Curtis was 22.90 swimming side-by-side during the second leg of the race, which the Dutch won and Italy placed 2nd.
Tonight’s swim for the Italians was just shy of the Italian Record of 1:36.01, set by Lorenzo Mora, Nicolo Martinenghi, di Pietro and Costanza Cocconcelli at the 2022 Short Course World Championships.
The team was 1.23 seconds off record pace through the 150, but Curtis made up more than a second on Cocconcelli’s split from 2022 to pull them within eight one-hundredths.
Split Comparison
| Netherlands, 2021 (Old CR) | Italy, 2025 (New CR) | Italy, 2022 (Current NR) |
| Kira Toussaint – 25.99 | Francesco Lazzari – 22.88 | Lorenzo Mora – 22.59 |
| Arno Kamminga – 25.54 | Simone Cerasuolo – 25.67 | Nicolo Martinenghi – 24.83 |
| Maaike de Waard – 24.50 | Silvia di Pietro – 24.62 | Silvia di Pietro – 24.52 |
| Thom de Boer – 20.15 | Sara Curtis – 22.92 | Costanza Cocconcelli – 24.07 |
| 1:36.18 | 1:36.09 | 1:36.01 |
Poland won bronze in 1:36.98, setting a new National Record of their own, while Hungary (1:38.27), Lithuania (1:38.71) and Estonia (1:38.79) set new national marks in placing 5th, 7th and 8th, respectively. Denmark, which placed 4th in 1:38.24, set a new NR of 1:37.53 in the prelims.
Full Finals Results
The victory for Italy came after they won the men’s 4×50 free relay and won silver in the women’s 4×50 free relay on the opening night.
Through two days of racing, they lead the overall medal table with two gold and two silver medals.
