2020 SETTE COLLI TROPHY
- Tuesday, August 11th – Thursday, August 13th
- Stadio Olimpico Curva Nord, Rome, Italy
- LCM (50m)
- Day 1 Recap
- Day 2 Recap
- Start Lists/Live Results
- Live Stream (Italy Only)
Day 2 of the 2020 Sette Colli Trophy saw 15-year-old Benedetta Pilato power her way to a new lifetime best and World Junior Record in the women’s 50m breast.
Stopping the clock in a speedy 29.85, Pilato’s outing sliced .01 off of the previous WJR held by now-retired Lithuanian Olympic gold medalist Ruta Meilutyte.
Watch the incredible turnover rate at which Pilato throws down below as she becomes the world’s 8th fastest performer ever in this event, again at just 15 years of age.
Video courtesy of YouTuber Swim Swimming.
As originally reported:
While competing on day 2 of the 2020 Sette Colli Trophy, 15-year-old Benedetta Pilato crushed a new World Junior Record mark of 29.85 in the women’s 50m breaststroke.
The time surpasses the long-standing WJR held by Olympic gold medalist Ruta Meilutyte at 29.86, logged at the 2013 FINA World Junior Championships.
Entering this meet, Pilato’s personal best and Italian national record stood at the 29.98 she produced in prelims at last year’s World Championships in Gwangju. The then-14-year-old went on to take the silver in 30.00 to become the youngest Italian female in history to win a medal in an international competition.
Pilato’s outing here of 29.85 is nearing the overall European Record of 29.48 still held by the now-retired Meilutyte from 2013.
The Italian teen has now become the 8th fastest performer all-time in this women’s 50m breast event.
Pilato was impressive earlier in the meet, posting a near-personal best time of 1:07.38 to place 4th in the 100m breast.
Just Molly Hannised down the pool.
Is she the youngest swimmer in history under 30 seconds?
She was under 30 seconds last year, so probably.
Kind of like a stroke hack – thinking Sjostrom in the 50 fly. Nobody thinks to swim like that because it’s not sustainable for 100 meters.
It’s the no breath 50 free, can’t copy that into the 100.
Those are half dolphin kicks, shouldn’t be legal. Downvote me
Ok
If you have your feet everted (toes out, not in), it’s not a dolphin kick. Get basically the same effect, but legal. Molly Hannis and her coaches have been through this many times.
Well now I’m going to upvote you…
sccoach stopped watching high level breaststroke before Benedetta was even born
Watch some of the race videos of Yulia Efimova from when she was 13-15 and it is possible to see that she used a very high turnover stroke at the time too, at least in shorter races and even at the end of a longer race. I do not know the exact tempo she had and I am not going to go back and look at it right now.
Anyone care to try to explain why she hasn’t been able to carry her speed over to the 100.
Taking about 76 strokes a lap
I counted 29 strokes
She’s young, I’m sure we’ll see it develop over the next couple years
The 50 breastroke is Pilato’s bread and butter distance. Obviously the incredible strokes-rate she has in a 50 br. is impossible to keep in a 100 m, so Pilato’s coach is working on her stroke for the longer distance. And she’s already improved a lot : 1.08.21 her PB in the 2019, 1.07.06 in the 2020 northeless this complicated season.
Im having a hard time understanding what I’m seeing.
1. If you don’t look at the arms it almost looks like she is doing fly. Not a dolphin kick but the undulation from the waist to the hips to the legs.
2. Her head and shoulders have little movement, all the other swimmers submerge once the hands and head come forward.
I’m wondering if this stroke is something that can be mimicked, or if she has some flexibility/mobility advantage which other swimmers (high level) don’t have (think how Phelps had a flexibility in his back and shoulders that allowed him to breath every stroke where other swimmers would sink)
Molly Hannis has been doing this stroke forever.
It looks like she trains a lot of Breastroke with fins! I can’t tell from the video, but I imagine her kick is real narrow.
If you watch her 50br at Euro Juniors, you see underwater for a couple seconds. It appears narrower than the other girls, but not massively so, and nowhere near as pronounced as Peaty. Her stroke looks bouncier this year too, but it’s clearly working for her as she gets faster and faster.
Could the increase in bounce be due to an increase in strength/power? That’s something you’d expect a swimmer of her age develop, more strength/power generally.
I think that’s it. Last summer everything was working forward, she almost looked she she was galloping over the water from the side. I remember thinking how rare it is to see such immense power through the forward propulsion without much upward propulsion in a young swimmer. I am no expert on the mechanics of breaststroke, the stroke is the devil (sorry), but I’d imagine it would be difficult to achieve much more forward momentum without seeing some upward momentum too.
At 6:41 her kick is perfectly visible and isn’t narrow at all.
What’s absolutely incredible is Pilato stroke’s frequency and continuity. And her power. Sort of phenom like Peaty.
That kick is part of her pullout and majority of the big time swimmers have a bigger kick as part of their pullouts while their kick as part of the stroke is much smaller (at least for 50 & 100 breaststroke races).
Even for the 200. Watanabe has a wide one for the pullout but actually a pretty narrow 200
Kick