2025 GENEVA INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE
- Friday, January 24th – Sunday, January 26th
- Geneva, Switzerland
- LCM (50m)
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream
The 58th edition of the annual Geneva International Challenge kicked off from Geneva, Switzerland last night and we saw day two’s action unfold in spades. Multiple meet records bit the dust to add to the excitement from both Swiss swimmers and those visiting from beyond.
Italy’s Anna Pirovano was the top finisher in the women’s 400m IM, producing a winning effort of 4:45.79.
That garnered her the gold ahead of Spaniard Laura Cabanes Garzas who touched in 4:47.74 for silver while teammate Alba Vazquez Ruiz rounded out the podium in 4:53.37.
As for Pirovano, her result this evening established a new meet record, overtaking the 4:46.58 Hungarian Zsuzsanna Jakabos put on the books in 2016.
Host nation swimmer and Olympic bronze medalist Roman Mityukov made his presence known in the men’s 200m back, putting up a time of 1:56.79 as the sole sub-2:00 swimmer of the field.
Mityukov opened in 57.31 and closed in 59.48 to produce a time just outside the top 10 performance of his career. His outing overtook the former meet mark of 1:57.39 he logged 4 years ago.
The 24-year-old Swiss maestro claimed bronze in Paris with a new national record-setting result of 1:54.85.
While she finished in 4th place in the women’s 100m butterfly race, Italy’s Caterina Santambrogio established a new meet record for girls under 18.
Santambrogio hit a mark of 1:00.74 to erase Italian Eleonora Camisa‘s previous benchmark of 1:01.19 put on the books in 2019.
Getting to the wall first in this women’s 1fly was Belgium’s Roos Vanotterdijk, capturing one of three golds on the night. Vanotterdijk stopped the clock at 58.80 as the only swimmer to delve under the 59-second threshold in the race.
Behind her was Italy’s Anita Gastaldi who snagged silver in 59.35 followed by French racer Lili-Rose Berthelot who rounded out the podium in 1:00.06.
An additional Vanotterdijk meet title came in the women’s 50m fly where the national record holder checked in with a winning result of 26.40.
That held a healthy advantage over Berthelot who was relegated to runner-up status in 27.05 while Italy’s national record holder in the 50m free, Sara Curtis rounded out the podium in 27.15.
Finally, the Belgian superstar stopped the clock at 58.80 to win the women’s 100m fly. She’s been as fast as 57.25 in her career, an outing which notched the national record in the event at last year’s Olympic Games.
Italy’s Curtis upgraded to gold in the 50m back where the 18-year-old turned in a time of 26.40.
That was enough to hold off teammate Gastaldi who settled for silver in 28.64 followed by Portuguese athlete Rafaela Azevedo who bagged bronze in 29.27.
Vanotterdijk was indeed in the water for this 50m back contest; however, the Belgian was declared disqualified due to flinching at the start of the race.
Additional Notes
- Italian Olympian Federico Burdisso topped the podium on two occasions, grabbing gold in both the men’s 50m and 100m butterfly finals. In the former, the 23-year-old Olympic medalist touched in 23.86 while in the latter he hit 52.86 to clear both fields with relative ease.
