Courtesy: Yavuz Yavuz. Follow him on Substack here.
In 2009, at the height of the super-suit era, Mediterranean Games records in all but one swimming events fell in Italy’s Pescara. Of those 37 Games records, 20 were still standing strong before the Games kicked off for the 20th time – this time in Taranto. Only two of those records were improved at the 2026 Mediterranean Games.
LEGACY OF PESCARA
Before talking about Pescara 2009, it should be noted that the 2005 edition in Almeria of Spain were just as fruitful in terms of Games records. Of the 38 events included in the program of Pescara 2009, records of 32 came from four years earlier. The expansion of the program with the inclusion of 50-meter strokes was without doubt a factor in this, but a bigger reason was the scheduling – for the first time in history the Mediterranean Games had been held prior to the World Championships. The tapering in the run up to Montreal 2005 brought faster-than-usual times in Spain.
That made the oldest Games record broken in Pescara 2009 the one in women’s 800m free, remnant from Athens 1991. Alessia Filippi, the Olympic silver-medalist from Beijing 2008 improved Cristiana Sossi’s 18-year-old Games record by more than 16 seconds with a winning time of 8:20.78.
The only event without a Games record in Pescara 2009 was men’s 200m fly. Ioannis Drymonakos’s gold-medal winning time of 1:57.58 from 2005 remained unbeaten. Although Niccolo Beni and Francesco Vespe, Italy’s sole swimmers under 1:58 at the time, were in the pool, they were outswum by Frenchman Thomas Vilaceca – whose winning time was 0.19 seconds outside the Games record.
Mediterranean Games also witnessed the first and sole world records of its 58-year history in Pescara. Spain’s Aschwin Wildeboer, who swam the first leg in men’s 400 medley relay final set a 100m back world record in 52.38 seconds. Aaron Peirsol, the former world record holder who had won the Olympic gold medal in Beijing a year earlier, would reclaim the record merely a week later at the U.S. Championships, and would hold it for seven years until the Olympic Games at Rio 2016.
The other world record at Pescara 2009 came from Federica Pellegrini in women’s 400m free. The Venetian swam an unrivalled 4:00.41 in the final before renewing it at the World Championships in Rome a month later, becoming the first woman under four minutes in 3:59.15.
TARANTO’S RECORDS
Still, it should be noted that what made the Games records in Pescara 2009 was their resilience to time rather than their quantity. 20 of the 37 Games records broken in 2009 were still intact, come Taranto 2026. 14 of these were on the men’s side while six Games records from 17 years back in women’s events were going strong. Two of these 20 records were broken in the 2026 Mediterranean Games.
Both of these new Games records that erased 2009 marks came on the final night session of the event. Simone Spedacci of Italy, who won gold in men’s 200m IM, improved Oussama Melloulli’s Games record by 0.68 seconds in 1:57.70. In men’s 100m back, European champion Apostolos Christou of Greece touched the wall in 52.34, improving Wildeboer’s then-world record time by 0.04 seconds.
What about the unbroken records, then? All the freestyle Games records in men’s events are from 2009, alive and kicking. Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi, the world champion in men’s 800m and 1500m free, came in poor form to Taranto winning only bronze in 400m and 800m free and missing out on the podium in 1500m free. While men’s 800 was absent from the program back in 2009, Jaouadi was eyeing his compatriot Mellouli’s 1500m Games record of 14:38.01 from 17 years ago. Although he qualified to the Games with a time of 14:34.41, Jaouadi came in sixth in the final while Matteo Diodato’s winning time of 15:06.27 was way off from the record.
Alberto Razzetti of Italy was targeting the men’s 400m IM Games record from 2009, but his gold medal-winning time of 4:11.99 was 1.46 seconds out. In women’s 200m back Camila Rebelo won gold in a time of 2:08.88, 0.85 seconds slower than Filippi’s time in Pescara 2009.
Another interesting stat came from women’s 100 fly, where the record from 2009 was renewed in every edition through to Oran 2022. The Games record of 57.55 from four years ago remains standing, as Greece’s Anna Ntountounaki swam a winning time slower than 58 seconds – a first in 21 years.
This leaves 18 Games records from the stellar meet of 2009 that live to see the 2030 Mediterranean Games, set to be held in the Kosovan capital of Pristina.
ABOUT YAVUZ YAVUZ
Yavuz Yavuz is a sports journalist from Turkey, specializing in swimming among other Olympic sports. He covered numerous World and European championships for Serbest Atış, a Turkish sports blog, and featured and various other print and online sports media.
