Charlotte Bonnet Swims #4 100 Free at Geneva International Challenge

2018 Geneva International Challenge Meet (Challenge International de Genéve)

• January 19-21, 2018
• Geneva, Switzerland
• LCM (50m) course
• Meet site
• Live Results
• Meet Records broken (overall and junior)

Headlined by Olympians and World Championship participants from France, Italy, Japan and the United States, as well as blossoming young swimmers from across Europe, 32 meet records were broken at the 2018 Geneva International Challenge Meet this weekend. That includes world top-10 times from Frenchwoman Charlotte Bonnet.

Bonnet broke her first Meet Record in the 100 free prelims, swimming a 54.39, and followed that with another in finals in 53.72. That time ranks her 4th in the world so far this season, and is just .07 seconds shy of her lifetime best in the event done at last year’s French National Championships.

As an encore, Bonnet also won the women’s 200 free final in a new Meet Record of 1:57.70, which jumps her up to 10th in the world rankings this year.

What’s more, the times rank her as the fastest European of the season in the 100 free (Sarah Sjostrom doesn’t have a long course result yet), and the 3rd-fastest European of the season in the 200 free. With the European Championships counting as the major competition for most of the continent in 2018, those continental rankings carry even more weight heading into the summer.

A contingent from Team Elite based in the United States also made the trip, along with a few international cohorts. The result was 3 Meet Records, albeit only one from an actual American. Kendyl Stewart won and set a new Meet Record in the 50 fly with a 26.63, and Bonnet was also under the old record finishing 2nd in 26.70. In the 100 fly, Stewart (59.01) and her countrymate Hellen Moffitt (59.22) finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, behind another Meet Record: this time from Elena Di Liddo from Italy won in 58.97. That broke her own Meet Record of 59.31 from last year’s meet, with both Stewart and Moffitt also under the old mark.

Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, another member of  Team Elite, broke Meet Records in the 100 and 200 backstrokes, swimming 53.69 and 1:57.40, respectively. Those times jump him to 3rd and 6th place in the world in the two events. He placed 2nd in the 50 back behind Israel’s Jonatan Kopelev (25.50). Irie had a relatively-small split spread in the two races, even by his well-controlled standard, going 26.13-27.56 in the 100 back and splitting 27.48-29.85-30.03-30.04 in the 200 back.

Other Highlights:

• Hungary’s Nandor Nemeth broke a Meet Record in the men’s 100 free in 49.29 and the 200 free in 1:50.09. Relays haven’t historically been an area of great focus for the Hungarians, but Nemeth was part of a group of electric young freestylers (including Peter Holoda, Dominik Kozma, and Richard Bonus) that won bronze at last year’s World Championships and is young enough to have eyes on gold in Tokyo. They’ll be heavy favorites at the European Championships this summer.
• Italy’s Luca Pizzini won the men’s 100 breast in a new Meet Record of 1:01.63, while his countrymate Edoardo Giorgetti won the 200 in 2:15.18. Both swimmers are veterans, born in 1989.