Antoine Viquerat made a statement on his first outing in Swiss colours when he twice took down the national 200 breaststroke record in Lausanne.
Viquerat has switched allegiance to Switzerland to France and immediately set about rewriting the record books in prelims. There he lowered Yannick Käser’s standard of 2:06.42 that had stood since 2017 to 2:05.05. He then returned in the evening to lower it once more to 2:03.83 while booking a spot on the team for the World Short Course Championships in Beijing.
Roman Mityukov secured two championship titles on the opening day, each with a new personal best. First up was the 50m backstroke in 23.51secs before adding the 50m freestyle in 21.64.
Noè Ponti lived up to his role as favourite in the 100m butterfly. He secured gold in 48.25, 0.54 off his European record (47.71).
Gian-Luca Gartmann (4:05.98) and Marius Toscan (4:08.22) also bought the ticket for Beijing in the 400IM.
While Ponti, Mityukov and Flavio Bucca are already pre-selected due to their performances last season, Thierry Bollin and Antonio Djakovic also went inside the cut for short-course worlds ahead of Lausanne. Viquerat, Gartmann and Toscan now also join the Swiss team for Beijing.
Day one champions:
- 400 m freestyle: V. Djakovic (SCU, 4:10.89) | A. Djakovic (SCU, 3:43.38)
- 50 m backstroke: Patt (SCU, 27.22) | Mityukov (GEN, 23.51)
- 200 m breaststroke: Löhr (SCU, 2:26.46) | Viquerat (GEN, 2:03.83 / SR)
- 100 m butterfly: Rasmussen (GEN, 58.60) | Ponti (SCU, 48.25)
- 400 m medley: Patt (SCU, 4:41.35) | Gartmann (SCU, 4:05.98)
- 50 m freestyle: Hoigné (SKBE, 24.83) | Mityukov (GEN, 21.64)