Federico Burdisso Wipes Out Laszlo Cseh Geneva Challenge Record

2019 GENEVA INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE MEET (CHALLENGE INTERNATIONAL DE GENÉVE)

• Friday, January 18th – Sunday, January 20th
• Geneva, Switzerland
• LCM
• Meet Site
• Start Lists
• Live Stream
• Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims
• Results

Day 3 Highlights

Both Italian young guns Federico Burdisso and Thomas Ceccon were in the pool on the final night of action in Geneva, Switzerland and each came away with his own record to wrap up the competition.

Youth Olympic Games standout Ceccon rocked the winning time of the men’s 18&U 100m backstroke final, crushing a mark of 54.85, That registered as the fastest time of both the junior and senior final, beating Swiss swimmer Roman Milyukov who took the 19&O category’s race in 55.85.

For Ceccon, he beautifully split 27.08/27.77 to clinch the gold. His time overtakes the previous meet record for 18&U held by Simone Sabbioni with the 55.85 he registered back in 2014. For perspective, 17-year-old Ceccon took bronze in this event in Buenos Aires with a time of 53.65.

Burdisso blasted perhaps an even more impressive swim in the men’s 200m fly, ripping a winning time of 1:57.14. He, too, not only won the men’s junior final, but beat the time of the 19&O age category as well. The winner of the senior final was Steven Sholdra, who mustered just a 2:04.41.

For Burdisso, the teen roared out in front with a quick split of 54.43 before quieting the jets immensely to a back half of 1:02.71. His ultimate time of 1:57.14 is a new personal best, shaving .02 off of the 1:57.16 he threw down for bronze in Buenos Aires at the Youth Olympic Games. It also overtakes the previous senior and junior meet records, with the former held by Hungarian legend Laszlo Cseh in 1:57.37 form 2016.

Burdisso remains as the 9th fastest swimmer in the world this season in the event.

Both Italian youngsters competed in the men’s 50m free final, but it was Leonardo Vimercati who came out on top. Vimercati notched a winning time of 22.85 to hit the wall a fingernail ahead of Burdisso who settled for silver in 22.86. Ceccon was over the 22-second barrier in 23.04 to round out the top 3.

Italian Fabio Scozzoli followed up his 50m breast meet record with another record-breaking effort this evening. He collected a winning 100m breast time of 1:01.56 for a new meet record, beating the 1:01.63 established by Luca Pizzini last year.

The women’s 100m breast saw Martina Carraro clinch the win in 1:07.98. Splitting 32.80/35.18, Carraro won by over 5 seconds. The Italian is now ranked 7th in the world.

In additional youth action, Scottish swimmers Kathryn Goodburn and Emma Russell went 1-2 in the women’s 50m free, with the former winning in 26.81 to the latter’s 26.85.

Russell came away with the 200m freestyle youth win, however, punching the wall in 2:05.92 for first place.

In the 17&U 100m backstroke, Ellie Turner of Scotland rushed to the wall in 1:04.50, a time that would have placed 4th in the A-Final, which was won by Swiss swimmer Maria Ugolkova in 1:02.54.