Italian Simona Quadarella Crushes Decade-Old National Record in 1500 Win

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

In the absence of Katie Ledecky Tuesday night in Gwangju, Italian Simona Quadarella cruised to a commanding 1500m free win, hitting a new Italian record along the way.

Quadarella dropped eight seconds off her previous of 15:48.84 to go 15:40.89. She also finished eight seconds ahead of the next-fastest swimmer, German Sarah Kohler, who set a new national record at 15:48.83. China’s Wang Jianjiahe finished third in 15:51.00.

Take a look at Quadarella’s full splits:

Alessia Filippi owned the previous Italian record at 15:44.93, from the 2009 World Championships.

This swim caps a banner season for the 20-year-old Quadarella. Her previous PR was just swum at the 2019 Sette Colli Trophy in late June, and was a six-second improvement on her best time before that meet. She ranked No. 3 in the world heading into this week, and is now the second-fastest performer since Ledecky in Rio. Quadarella’s time Tuesday also puts her atop the world this season, as Ledecky’s season-best was 15.45.59, from January, before she had to pull out of this meet due to sickness.

In This Story

1
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

1 Comment
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Wahooswimfan
4 years ago

Too bad Leah Smith could not have been subbed in for Ledecky. Between this event and the 200 free, the US lost 3 medal opportunities.

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

Read More »