With a new title on Saturday, Swiss Noé Ponti completed a golden hat-trick in butterfly at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Otopeni (Romania).
Ponti won the 50m butterfly final in 21 sec 79, coming close to the world record held by Brazilian Nicholas Santos and Hungarian Szebasztian Szabo (21 sec 75). The 22-year-old Swiss had already won the 100m on Wednesday, setting a new European record, and the 200m on Friday.
“Well, I missed the world record by very little… (But) it’s incredible! I think I’m the first to win all three butterfly events in the same championship,” Ponti reacted.
“Today I wasn’t stressed at all, unlike Friday. It’s the 50m, there’s nothing to lose, I just went all out. I made a good turn, that was the key,” he continued. The Swiss had an eventful evening since barely out of the pool, he immediately dove back to compete in the semi-finals of the 100m medley.
Tied for eighth time, he therefore had to go through a jump-off at the end of the session, which he won, thus managing to qualify for the final. The fifth and penultimate day of competition was also an opportunity to see Romanian David Popovici in action. The local hero competed in the 200m freestyle final, but the public support was not enough for the Romanian, who finished just off the podium. It was the Briton Matthew Richards, reigning world champion of this same distance in long course, who was crowned (1:41.01). Popovici will be back on Sunday for the 100m freestyle final.
