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AIPROPX ReportABC (Australia) · 1d ago
Teen Italian star breaks world record for second time this week
Sara Curtis has broken the women's 50m backstroke world record for the second time this week.
Curtis won gold at the European Championships in a time of 26.56 seconds, shaving 0.007 seconds off her mark earlier in the week.
Before this week, the mark was held by Australian great Kaylee McKeown.
Italian teenage swimming sensation Sara Curtis has broken the world 50m backstroke world record again, just a day after eclipsing the global mark of Australian great Kaylee McKeown.
The 19-year-old Curtis won gold in 26.56 seconds in the final of the European Championships in Paris on Thursday, local time, clipping another 0.07 seconds off the time of 26.63 she had set in Wednesday's semifinals.
That time had obliterated the three-year-old mark of five-time Olympic champion McKeown, who had clocked 26.86 when winning a World Cup race in Budapest in 2023.
It continued the historic week for the Savigliano-born Curtis, who has a Nigerian mother and Italian father, as she becomes the first Black swimmer to hold an individual long-course world record.
Mary-Ambre Moluh, from France, finished half a second behind Curtis to take the silver, while Britain's Lauren Cox took bronze.
"I'm happy I managed it again. It's absurd, another crazy feat," Curtis told Italian TV station Rai 2.
It was the third medal in Paris for the University of Virginia star, who also took bronze in 100m freestyle and silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
The teenager had been inching towards the world record all year, having broken the Italian and European records earlier in the season.
"From the moment I set off for Virginia, that's all I thought about, the record. A dream and an immense goal," she admitted.
But it has been a tough spell for McKeown, who had to pull out of both the recent Commonwealth Games and the current Pan Pacific Championships because of glandular fever.
The 25-year-old is determined to get back into top shape for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, where Curtis shapes to be one of the pool stars.
Great Britain's Filip Nowacki claimed the European 200m breaststroke gold, continuing his terrific rise.
The 18-year-old was fresh from winning gold for Jersey at the Commonwealth Games, only the second ever for his little Channel Island home.
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Teen ItalianItalianSara CurtisAustralianKaylee McKeown
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