Noè Ponti narrowly misses out on Swiss swimming history. The Ticino swimmer was one tenth of a second short of a second Olympic medal in the 100 m dolphin after winning bronze three years ago in Tokyo.
Only four Swiss swimmers have won a medal in Olympic history. On Saturday evening in the La Défense Arena, Ponti had the opportunity to be the first to claim a second podium place. Even the gold medal in his showpiece discipline seemed within reach.
In the end, the 23-year-old finished fourth in the final in 50.55, narrowly missing his medal target. The Hungarian Olympic champion Kristof Milak (49.90) and the two Canadians Josh Liendo (49.99) and Ilya Kharun (50.45) finished ahead of him.
Again no perfect stop
While Milak and Liendo would probably have been out of reach even with a perfect race from Ponti, Kharun was within striking distance. With 50.55, Ponti remained well above his Swiss record (50.16), which he swam at the Swiss Championships in Uster in April.
Ponti did not want to blame himself after the race. "You can't be disappointed when you come fourth in an Olympic final," he analyzed. But of course it was a thankless place. "Once again, I didn't hit the target perfectly. That was perhaps the decisive factor."
Kharun with the even better catch-up race
Halfway through the race, Ponti was in 6th place. He then turned up the heat as usual and overtook three other competitors. But the fact that he still didn't manage to finish on the podium was down to Kharun. The latter advanced from 7th place to the podium in the last 50 m - just like on Wednesday, when the Canadian finished third in the 200 m dolphin and Ponti fifth.
SDA
