Noè Ponti won gold again on Friday at the world championships in Budapest, Hungary. After winning the first gold medal in history for Switzerland in a world championship and setting a new world record on Wednesday in the 50m butterfly, the 23-year-old from Ticino won the 100m medley.
In the lead after the 25m butterfly, Ponti let his opponents come back, but he made the difference in the last 25m freestyle to win in 50”33, thus beating his Swiss record by six hundredths.
On the podium, he is ahead of the Austrian Bernhard Reitshammer (51”11) and the Brazilian Caio Pumputis (51”35).
A few minutes before his final, Ponti once again had the luxury of setting the best time in the semi-finals in the 100m butterfly, in 48”89. He will play this new final on Saturday (5:40 p.m.).
In the 50m backstroke final, Thierry Bollin was unable to increase his speed and finished last (22”97), half a second behind the winner, the Russian Miron Lifintsev (22”47). The 24-year-old Bernese clocked a time 0”26 short of his Swiss record, achieved on Thursday in the semi-finals.
