Noe Ponti Wins 100 Fly Bronze at 2020 Tokyo Olympics
7/30/2021 10:06:00 PM | Swimming
TOKYO – Incoming Wolfpack swimmer Noe Ponti made history for his country on Friday night as he earned a bronze medal in what was the first-ever 100-meter butterfly finals appearance by a Swiss swimmer.
Ponti clocked in at 50.74 in his third-place finish, which established a new national record in the event. He put together an incredibly fast trio of butterfly swims over the last two days, going just off the Swiss record in the prelims (51.24) and lowering the record once in the Thursday night semis (50.76) before bettering it in the final.
His mark in the finals was just over a second off the winning time, a 49.45 world record set by Caeleb Dressel of the United States. NC State has now had a medalist in each of the last four Olympic Games. Ponti's performance followed Ryan Held's gold medal in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay from 2016, Cullen Jones' pair of silver medals from 2012 and Jones' 4x100-meter freestyle relay gold from 2008.
Nyls Korstanje joined Ponti in Thursday night's butterfly semifinal race, ranking in the top 16 in his individual Olympics debut. The Netherlands native set a new Dutch record in the prelims (51.54) and put together another solid swim in the semis (51.80) to rank 12th in the world.
Korstanje also impressed as a member of the mixed 4x00-meter medley relay team for Netherlands as the event was swam at the Olympics for the first time. In the prelims, the squad went 3:43.25 boosted by Korstanje's 51.86 butterfly leg. Netherlands then lowered that time in the finals, touching in 3:41.25 for sixth place. Korstanje dropped his leg to 51.34 in his first-ever Olympic final.
Alexander Norgaard and Anton Ipsen both saw action in the 1,500-meter freestyle prelims on Friday morning, with Ipsen clocking in at 15:01.58 and Norgaard finishing in 15:28.70 as they represented Denmark.
Friday's earlier session also marked the prelims for the 4x100-meter medley relay, which will close out the swimming portion of the 2020 Olympic Games on Saturday night. Kacper Stokowski (54.67 backstroke split) was part of a 3:32.62 Polish record that placed sixth, and Sophie Hansson (1:05.61 breaststroke split) helped her Swedish team advance to the finals.
Hansson and Team Sweden will compete in the final swimming session that begins at 9:30 p.m. EST on Saturday night. The races will be broadcast live on NBC, with the women's medley relay scheduled to go off around 10:15 p.m. EST.
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