Wolfpack’s Noe Ponti Lowers Hours-Old Swiss 100 Fly Record To 51.15

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Earlier today at the 2020 Rotterdam Qualification Meet (RQM), Switzerland’s Noe Ponti put up the swim of his life in the men’s 100m fly to notch a new national record at 51.24.

However, the 19-year-old didn’t rest on his laurels, with the NC State-bound speedster instead finding a way to slice off another .09 en route to lowering his record to 51.15.

Ponti’s splits from this morning included 24.42 on the way out and 26.82 on the way home while his performance tonight included splits of 24.28/26.87. With his outing, he represented the only sub-52 second swimmer of the field, as the runner-up spot was taken by another visiting swimmer in Belgian Louis Croenen. Croenen touched in 52.21, just .11 off his newly-minted national record of 52.10 from this morning’s heats.

Ponti’s new 51.15 Swiss record time positions him still just outside the top 35 performers all-time in the event.

Entering this competition, Ponti’s career-quickest in this 1fly sprint rested at the 52.60 he logged at the 2019 Italian Winter Championships. What a difference a year makes, as he hacked well over a second off that time to check-in with not only his first-ever sub-52 second performances but the first-ever sub-52 second outing from any man from Switzerland.

The previous Swiss standard stood at the 52.28 Jeremy Desplanches posted at the French Championships last year.

Both of Ponti’s time today easily clear the FINA ‘A’ standard for the postponed 2020 Olympic Games, a mark which stands at 51.96.