European S/C Championships, Day 3 Finals: Marrit Steenbergen Sets ER; Noe Ponti Wins 100 IM by .01
The finals of the 100 individual medley at the 2025 European Short-Course Championships didn’t disappoint Thursday, as an opener to the third night of the meet.
Marrit Steenbergen set the European record in winning the women’s race, while Noe Ponti outdueled Maxime Grousset by .01 seconds in setting a meet record in an engaging dual between the two stars.
All the action from Lublin, Poland:
Women’s 100 IM final
Marrit Steenbergen took control in backstroke and never let it go. She finished in 56.26, downing the European and meet records, both held by Katinka Hosszu. The retired Hungarian star set the European mark in 2017 at 56.51. Her meet mark dates to this meet in 2015.
The medal is Steenbergen’s third of the meet, her second gold and first individual medal. She’s up to 20 career Euros medals (12 long-course, eight short-course).
Roos Vanotterdijk finished second in 56.80 for her second medal of the meet. Vanotterdijk passed Anastasia Gorbenko for silver on the freestyle leg coming home. The Israeli finished third in 57.17, four tenths up on Beryl Gastaldello of France.
Men’s 100 IM final
What a difference two years makes for Noe Ponti in this race. Not just the upgrade from the silver that he won in 2023 in Otopeni but the time, more than a second quicker this time around.
Ponti led at each wall and held off the push from Maxime Grousset by .01 seconds, the Swiss swimmer winning in 50.52. It’s a meet record, downing the ancient standard of Peter Mankoc set at 50.76 in 2009.
Ponti had gone 51.62 in 2023 to finish two tenths back of Bernhard Reishammer. But he’s much quicker two years later.
Grousset was seventh at the midpoint but rallied to second with a devastating 14.15 split in breaststroke. He came home .06 quicker than Ponti, but he needed that extra hundredth.
It’s another Austrian medal in this event, with Heiko Gigler third in 51.60. He edged countryman Luka Mladenovic by .03 for the honor.
Men’s 1500 freestyle final
Daniel Wiffen needed a final-100 spurt to get to the wall first, his time 14:13.96 surging him past Zalan Sarkany for the win.
The Hungarian, who was the top seed in prelims, was first to the wall at each touch from 25 meters to 1,425. But Wiffen split 27.17 in the penultimate 50 to Sarkany’s 28.32. Wiffen poured it on, coming home in 25.95 to Sarkany’s 27.47.
Sarkany got silver in 14:15.51. Florian Wellbrock of Germany was comfortably third for the last 1,000 or so meters, taking bronze in 14:19.26. David Betlehem charged late (25.76 on the final 50 to Wellbrock’s 26.71), but he still had nearly a half-second to bridge in getting fourth in 14:19.65.
Poland’s Bartosz Kapala finished fifth in 14:26.44, nine tenths up on Victor Johansson. Sacha Velly of France was seventh in 14:35.20. Kuzey Tuncelli of Turkey was a distant eighth in 14:43.60.
Women’s 200 breaststroke semifinals
Men’s 200 breaststroke semifinals
Women’s 100 backstroke semifinals
Men’s 100 backstroke semifinals
Women’s 200 freestyle final
Men’s 200 freestyle final
Women’s 100 butterfly semifinals
Men’s 100 butterfly semifinals
Mixed 200 freestyle final
