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Noè Ponti from Ticino secured gold in a superior manner at the European Short Course Championships in Otopeni in the 100 m butterfly.
In the preliminary round and semi-final, Noè Ponti already indicated that he was the favorite, and in the final of the European Short Course Championships, the Ticino native confirmed his superiority in his flagship discipline, 100 m butterfly. Ponti gave the European competition no chance in Otopeni, Romania and swam to gold in 48.71 seconds.
For the 22-year-old, it is the first medal in continental competitions on the short course. Ponti not only improved his previous Swiss record (48.61 s), but also beat the European record by 1 hundredth of a second.
For the Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo 2021, it is already the sixth medal at the elite level, but the first in gold: in Rome in 2022, he won European silver over 100 m, and at the 2021 Short Course World Championships in Abu Dhabi (200 m butterfly). and the 2022 Short Course World Championships in Melbourne (50 m butterfly) also resulted in silver, and in Australia there was also bronze in the 200 m butterfly.
Bronze for Bollin
With Thierry Bollin, a second Swiss won precious metal in Romania on Wednesday. In the 50 m backstroke, the Bernese came third at the same time as the Italian Lorenzo Mora and secured the bronze medal.
Bollin swam exactly the same speed in the final as he did in the semifinals (23.10 s), equaling his national record from the previous day. The Frenchman Mewen Tomac became European champion ahead of Ole Braunschweig from Germany.