Noe Ponti will seek to add to his formidable collection of medals at the European Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships which start in Lublin, Poland on Tuesday week (December 2).
The 24-year-old Swiss athlete ended 2024 on a high as he set five short course world records and earned three golds at December’s World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest.
His impact on the last edition of the EA Short Course Championships, at Otopeni in 2023, was also huge as he won gold at 50m, 100m (NR 21.79) and 200m (ER 48.47) butterfly, as well as taking silver in the 100m individual medley (51.62 NR).
At this year’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore Ponti earned silver in the 50m and 100m butterfly events, clocking respective national records of 22.51 and 49.83 as he finished behind France’s Maxime Grousset on both occasions.
Earlier this year the Tokyo 2020 100m butterfly bronze medallist told European Aquatics that he preferred long course to short course swimming – but his record in the latter category has been outstanding over the past two years and further visits to the podium in Poland will be widely expected.
Also named in the Swiss team is Thierry Bollin, who equalled the national men’s 50m backstroke record of 23.10 in earning bronze at Otopeni 2023.
Meanwhile Italy has indicated its own serious ambitions at the 23rd edition of these Championships, which will run from December 2 to 7, by selecting a team of 32 athletes – 12 women and 20 men – combining global gold medallists and up-and-coming talents.
The Italian team will aim to continue its fine tradition in recent editions of his event. Italy finished second in the Otopeni 2023 medals table behind Great Britain with seven golds, 12 silvers and three bronzes.
The team includes world 50m breaststroke champion Simone Cerasuolo and Paris 2024 100m backstroke gold medallist Thomas Ceccon, who won silver in that event at the most recent Championships in Singapore, adding bronze in the 50m butterfly.
Also selected are Tokyo 2020 women’s 800m bronze medallist Simona Quadarella, double gold medallist at the 2024 World Championships in Doha, and Paris 2024 100m breaststroke champion Nicolo Martinenghi, who won world silver in that event this summer.
The younger members of the team include 18-year-old Carlos D’Ambrosio, who won this year’s world junior 200m freestyle title in a Championship record of 1:45.15, and 19-year-old Sara Curtis, who won five golds at the 2024 European Aquatics Junior Championships in Vilnius.
Meanwhile Alessandra Mao is given a senior international debut at the age of 14.
Technical director Cesare Butini told the Italian Swimming Federation: “This is an important year which will allow us to view and evaluate many young people and to feed the basis for the composition of the team that will participate in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.”
Tickets for the European Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships Lublin 2025 are available here: https://www.eventim.pl/en/eventseries/european-aquatics-short-course-swimming-4019648/
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
