FLASH! Noe Ponti Sets European short-course 100 Fly Record Of 48.47 In Otopeni
Olympic bronze medallist Noe Ponti set a European short-course 100 fly record of 48.47 as he won the continental title in Otopeni, Romania.
The Swiss swimmer went ahead at the 75m mark and a final 25 of 13.03 saw him take 0.01 off Evgeny Korotyshkin’s previous standard of 48.48 from November 2009 as the supersuit era entered its final weeks.
Ponti had served notice in the semis with a championship record of 48.61.
Maxime Grousset – the world long-course champion – was second in 49.00 with Britain’s Jacob Peters third in 49.98.
Ponti said in a poolside interview in Otopeni:
“Amazing, I’m speechless. What a night.
“I tried to do my race, it turned out pretty good.”
He’d finished seventh at the 2023 worlds in a race won by Grousset and said:
“It’s been a redemption for me: Fukuoka (World Championships) didn’t go well for me.”
His performance elevates Ponti to joint third all-time alongside the USA’s Tom Shields, the pair sharing the fifth-swiftest in history.
All-Time Rankings
47.78: Caeleb Dressel, ISL Final, Nov 2020
48.08: Chad le Clos, World Short-Course Championships, Dec 2016
48.47: Noe Ponti, European Short-Course Championships, Dec 2023
48.47: Tom Shields, ISL Final, Nov 2020
48.48: Evgeny Korotyshkin, FINA World Cup Berlin, November 2009