The men's 200m IM final was one of the most highly-anticipated races of this 2024 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup stop in Shanghai and the battle to the wall did not disappoint.
When all was said and done, it was 22-year-old French Olympic multi-gold medalist Leon Marchand who touched first, firing off a new World Cup, French and European Record of 1:50.30.
Behind Marchand was another Olympic medalist in this 2IM, Duncan Scott of Great Britain who fell just .10 shy of his national record of 1:50.98 put up at the 2023 European Short Course Championships.
23-year-old Ponti's performance established a new Swiss standard, easily overtaking the 1:53.10 he established at the 2021 Swiss Championships.
Splits for Ponti's performance this evening included 23.17/27.97/33.24/27.40 to hack well over a second off his previous PB. He now slides inside the list of top 20 performers all-time in this event in slot #19.
Tonight's new national record is par for the course so far for this versatile ace. Last night he ripped a new European Record of 48.40 in the men's 100m fly.