Cseh Wins 50 Fly, but Desplanches Dominates 200 IM

50e CHALLENGE INTERNATIONAL DE GENEVE

• Friday, January 20th – Sunday, January 22nd
• Center Sportif des Vernets, Geneva, Switzerland
• Prelims at 9am local/Finals at 5:30pm local
• 50m
• Meet Site
• Live Stream
• Start Lists/Live Results (may not work unless you navigate to them through Meet Site above)

The 2nd day of the 50th edition of the Geneva International Challenge saw Laszlo Cseh add a second butterfly win to his tally.

Much like he did in Friday’s 100 fly, Cseh defended his 50 fly title on Saturday, though short of his Meet Record done last year. Cseh swam a 24.10 in the sprint, beating out Tim Phillips (24.20) and Marcus Schlesinger (24.26) – each of whom are known more for their speed than the 200/400 specialist Cseh.

In the women’s sprint fly, Italy’s Elena Gemo was the winner in 26.95, coming back from just a 6th-place finish in the 100. Sasha Touretski, the defending champion and Meet Record holder took 2nd in 27.09 – .35 seconds slower than she was last year. Elena di Liddo, who won the 100 a day earlier, took 3rd.

In the men’s 200 IM, Jeremy Desplanches of the home team pulled off the upset of the meet so far when he beat Cseh by nearly 3 seconds. Desplanches finished 1st in 2:00.59 to a 2:03.52 from Cseh. The two were fairly even through 150 meters, but in perhaps a sign of the post-Olympic recovery for the 31-year old Cseh as compared to the 22-year old Desplanches, Desplanches was 2.3 seconds better over the final 50 meters than was Cseh.

The meet will wrap with a 3rd and final day of action on Sunday.

Other noteworthy results:

• 16-year old Cassie Wild-Richards of Scotland won the women’s 50 back in 29.28 – .01 seconds better than the runner-up Gemo. American Madison Kennedy took 4th in 29.93.
• Israel’s Yakov Toumarkin swam 2:00.74 to win the 200 back by 3 seconds. The difference over runner-up Nils Liess was mostly in the last 50, though Toumarking led almost wire-to-wire.
• Martina Moravcikova won the women’s 200 breaststroke in 2:31.41.
• Jeremy Desplanches won the men’s 50 breaststroke in 28.70, beating out Brad Craig (28.96).
• Maria Ugolkova won the women’s 100 free in 55.57. The American Kenedy took 2nd in 55.79 and Andi Murez placed 3rd in 56.15.