The Simona Quadarella show. The Italian swimmer won the 1500 metres freestyle at the World Swimming Championships in Doha and won the individual pass for Paris 2024.

This was a race whose result was never in doubt: The 25-year-old from Rome (photo ANSA) started in the lead and finished well ahead of all her rivals. 15:46.99 was her time, behind her came China's Bingjie Li, second with a time of 15:56.62. Completing the podium, third with a time of 15:57.55, was Germany's Isabel Gose.

A Bronze medal winner in Tokyo 2020 in the 800 metres, for Quadarella this is the second world gold medal in her career after the Gwangju 2019 (also in the 1500 metres), as well as her sixth world championship medal. The Italian climbs onto the podium for the fifth consecutive World Championships.

Nationally, only two Italian swimmers had managed to repeat a world title in the same speciality: Federica Pellegrini, who made the world championship podium eight times in a row in 200 freestyle between 2005 and 2019, winning on four occasions, and Gregorio Paltrinieri, who stood on the podium five times in 1500 freestyle between 2013 and 2022, winning three times.

Then Alberto Razzetti: the 24-year-old Ligurian won the second semi-final of the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:55.09, claiming a place in the final and won his third Olympic pass after those already secured in the 200 and 400 mixed.