2023-07-22 21:33:00
The Swiss medal hopes rest exclusively on the shoulders of Noè Ponti in the Long Course World Championships which start on Sunday in Fukuoka.
Jérémy Desplanches is still a little ‘fair’, Antonio Djakovic and Roman Mityukov a little ‘tender’. The feat could come from Lisa Mamié.
Surprise bronze medalist at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games in the 100m butterfly, European vice-champion in the discipline in 2022 and triple medalist in the context of World Championships in short course, Noè Ponti is only 22 years old but already has only one gap left in his palmares: a podium in world championships in long course. He can fill it in Japan.
The Ticino will once again be engaged on all fronts. And this from Sunday on the occasion of the series of the 50 m butterfly, the distance in which his chances of medaling are the slimmest (10th time among the competitors, taking into account the times established last summer), and whose final is scheduled for Monday.
A very rich program
Noè Ponti will then try his luck in the 200m butterfly, the series of which will take place on Tuesday (4th time among the entries). He will be entitled to a single day ‘off’ after having – if all goes well – chained six races in four days. Will he withstand the shock in the 100m butterfly, the heats of which are scheduled for Friday 28 and the final on the 29?
This had not been the case in Budapest, theater of the 2022 Worlds. Convincing in the 50m butterfly, brilliant in the 200m with a 4th place 0”68 from the podium and solid in the series then in the semi-finals over 100m, he had cracked in the last meters of the final after turning in 3rd position. But it was the Covid-19 that had finally brought him down.
Noè Ponti, on the other hand, had fulfilled his mission six weeks later during the Europeans in Rome where, despite not being in optimal shape, he was able to give everything in the 100m butterfly which was his first event in these games. He approaches the 2023 Worlds with confidence, and in full possession of his means.
Milak’s Dressel sans
The Ticino is moreover ‘rid’ of two of his great rivals. Olympic champion in the 100m butterfly Caeleb Dressel failed to qualify (he has just returned to competition), while Olympic vice-champion and European champion Kristof Milak withdrew.
But the competition remains fierce. In the 100m butterfly, Canadian Josh Liendo Edwards swam in 50”36 this year and Frenchman Maxime Grousset in 50”61, while the Swiss record stands at 50”74 since Tokyo 2021. In the 200m, Tomoru Honda (1’52”70 last December) and the prodigy Léon Marchand (1’53”37 at the 2022 Worlds) evolve a step above Noè Ponti (1’54”20 in Budapest 2022).
Nevertheless, the Ticino is a man of great appointments. And, even if he made a point of stressing that this exercise 2022 was only a test year with a view to the 2024 Olympics, he will give everything to hang a first world medal in the long pool. And if he succeeds in 200m, everything will be possible in 100m.
Deplanches vise the final…
The other 2021 Olympic bronze medalist Jérémy Desplanches is still far from these considerations. Tokyo had marked the end of a fabulous but oh so trying cycle: he had become European champion in the 200m medley in 2018 and vice-world champion in 2019 before having to postpone his Olympic dream for a year due to pandemic.
The nearly 29-year-old Genevan has since changed management, joining the very demanding Philippe Lucas in Martigues to take up an ultimate challenge: to pick up an Olympic medal in Paris. But the road was strewn with pitfalls, with in particular a Covid then a lumbago which had weakened him last year when he was already struggling to digest a more restrictive training regimen.
Jérémy Desplanches is on the right track. Revanchard after his double disappointment in 2022 (elimination in the semi-finals of the Worlds, 4th place in the Europeans), he found the pleasure of swimming again. However, he is not yet ready to fight for the podium, and is aiming for a place in the final in an event promised to Frenchman Léon Marchand. The 200m medley series are scheduled for Wednesday, but it will be tested as usual in the 100m breaststroke on Sunday.
… Djakovic, Mamie and Mityukov too
The objective is also the same for the double medalist of Europeans 2022 (200 and 400 m free) Antonio Djakovic, who had blocked a nerve of the neck at the end of winter, for the European champion of the 200 m breaststroke Lisa Mamié and for fileist Genevois Roman Mityukov, 7th out of 200 m at the 2022 Worlds.
Swiss Aquatics – which will again field Marius Toscan and Nina Kost in Japan – also has ambitions in the 4x200m freestyle. The quartet made up of Djakovic, Ponti, Mityukov and Nils Liess wants to confirm the 6th place obtained at the 2021 Olympics and erase the disappointment of the Europeans 2022 (4th place). The 4x100m medley (Mityukov, Desplanches, Ponti, Djakovic) is aiming for the final.
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