Not since Mark Spitz (1972) has a water mustache been remembered as fast as that of the Italian with the pose of an actor or model Thomas Ceccon. The young man from Vicenza, only 22 years old, became the protagonist of the second day of the Fukuoka World Championships by hanging gold in the 50 backstroke. A success that eclipsed the brilliant classification of the great star, the Romanian David Popovici, for the final of the 200 free (this Tuesday, at 1:02 p.m.).
Ceccon, current world champion and record holder in the 100 backstroke (from the 2022 World Cup in Budapest), is one of those swimmers who would like to play many keys, changing styles. In Fukuoka he is going for the 50-100 double (he already has half), so it was his turn to win gold in the short test in just half an hour and get to the final of the hectometre with the best mark.
A feat that eclipsed, like his dramatic moustache, the other three medalists of the day, as well as one of the great stars of Fukuoka, the Romanian prodigy David Popovici (18), who shone in the heats and the semifinals of the 200 freestyle, in which this Tuesday (1:02 p.m.) he will seek a historical record, one of the longest-lived, held by the German Paul Biedermann since 2009.
Popovici, the current world and European distance champion, qualified with the best mark of all the participants, after being the only one along with the American Luke Hobson to go below 1:45. Of course, his 1: 44.70 was still far from the untouchable 1: 42.00 of the German.
The second day of competition at the Marine Messe in Fukuoka had Chinese leadership, as the eastern delegation took gold in pairs: Haiyang Qin was crowned the new 100 breaststroke world champion (57.69 seconds, new Asian record).
The curiosity of the final was that the silver had to be shared by three swimmers, who marked the same record, 58.72 seconds: Italian Nicolo Martinenghi, the Dutch Arno Kaminga and the American Nic Fink.
Minutes later, Qin’s gold was joined by that of his compatriot Yufei Zhang in the final of the 100 butterfly. The Chinese swimmer broke her spell at the Worlds, as she had so far held out on gold with six bronze medals in her previous six appearances. Zhang is the current Olympic champion in the 200 fly.
The first gold for the United States delegation was the one that Kate Douglass hung in the final of the 200 medley. The golden metal comes to them after adding four silvers and two bronzes in the first World Cup events. Silver went to his compatriot Alex Walsh, in the absence of Canadian Summer McIntosh (she excluded the 200 IM from her program) and Australian Kaylee McKeown, disqualified in the semifinals.
