Gastaldi Takes Down Longstanding Jakabos 200 Fly Geneva Challenge Record

2026 GENEVA INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE

The 2026 Geneva International Challenge concluded last night in Switzerland but not before 22-year-old Anita Gastaldi of Italy posted a new meet record in the women’s 200m butterfly.

Gastaldi stopped the clock at a mark of 2:10.45 to narrowly defeat Spanish swimmer Laura Garzas who touched less than half a second behind in 2:10.74. Fellow Spaniard Alba Vazquez Ruiz rounded out the podium in 2:14.00.

As for Gastaldi, her performance erased the longstanding competition benchmark of 2:10.78 that Hungarian Olympian Zsuzsanna Jakabos put on the books at the 2016 edition of the meet. Gastaldi’s outing also checked in as a big-time personal best for the Italian, hacking significant time off her previous career-swiftest result of 2:13.03 from July 2024. She’s now the 14th-best Italian performer in history.

Isak Rodrigo led a trio of Spanish athetes who monopolized the podium in the men’s version of the 200m fly.

Rodrigo produced a gold medal-worthy effort of 1:59.71 as one of two sub-2:00 performers.

Miguel Novoa was the runner-up in 1:59.90 followed by A. Gonzalez Alvarez who cinched bronze in 2:00.84.

Additional winners included Dutch Olympic medalist Caspar Corbeau claiming men’s 100m breaststroke gold in 1:00.19 and Italian veteran Lisa Angiolini following suit in 1:07.14 to top the women’s field by over two seconds.

Multi-event winner Diogo Ribeiro, a two-time 2024 World Championships gold medalist, got it done for gold in 22.38 in the men’s 50m freestyle.

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About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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