2023 INTERNATIONAL SWIM MEETING BOLZANO (ITA)
- Saturday, November 4th & Sunday, November 5th
- Bolzano, Italy
- SCM (25m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Day 1 Recap
- Results
The 27th edition of the International Swim Meeting Bolzano wrapped up last night with Swiss Olympic medalist Noe Ponti and versatile French racer Charlotte Bonnet dominating their respective events to close the competition.
Last night 22-year-old Ponti already topped the podium in the men’s 50m fly (22.77) and 100m IM (52.49), logging a new national record in the latter. His 100m IM outin also overwrote the previous meet record, a time of 52.79 Italian World Record holder Thomas Ceccon previously held.
On night two, Ponti put up a winning result of 49.85 to also reap gold in the men’s 100m fly decisively, beating the field by well over 3 seconds. Teammate and fellow Olympic medalist Jeremy Desplanches scored silver in 53.37 while Italy’s Tommaso Coccato wrangled up bronze in 54.01.
Ponti’s effort registered a meet record, surpassing his own 49.88 from the 2022 edition of the meet.
On his performances, Ponti stated, “I’m happy, I’ve improved since last year. Good meet, good results.”
Bonnet was similarly a one-swimmer wrecking ball, becoming the first-ever woman to win six races in a single Bolzano meet.
Yesterday in the women’s 100m IM, she erased American Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin‘s meet record of 58.72 from 2011. Bonnet got to the wall in that race in a time of 58.60 for gold.
That victory was just one of four from night one, with the 28-year-old also topping the podium in the 100m free, 50m breast and 50m fly.
Bonnet added two more golden performances to her remarkable haul, collecting the 100m breaststroke victory in 1:05.45 as well as the 50m free in 24.72.
After all was said and done, Bonnet said, “Am I the first to win six times here in Bolzano? I can’t believe it, this is good. I wanted to win every race, that was the goal.
“Saturday was tough, with four races in a short time. Today I made a good time in the 50 freestyle.”
Additional Day 2 Winners
- Lithuanian 14-year-old Tajus Juska impressed again, taking gold in his age group’s 100m fly and 50m free. He punched a result of 54.38 to win by nearly 4 seconds in the former and touched in 22.60 for the win in the latter. Both outings represent lifetime bests for the rising star.
- Silvia Scalia of Italy took the women’s 50m back in 26.99, with Italians Francesca Pasquino and Margherita Panziera next in line with results of 27.23 and 27.61, respectively.
- Desplanches was victorious in the men’s 100m breast, getting to the wall 2 seconds ahead of the field in 1:00.07.
- Elena Di Liddo of Italy was the top women’s 100m butterflier, clocking 58.49 as the gold medalist.
- Gabriele Brambillaschi struck gold in the men’s 50m free in 21.80, the sole swimmer under the 22-second threshold.
22.60 in the 50 free is really fast for a 14 year-old. In LCM is the fastest time ever swum (from Selin) by a 15 year-old, and I think could be a realistic target for Juska at next Eurojuniors which will be held in Lithuania (Juska will be 15 and 5 months at the beginning of July 2024).