2021 LATVIAN OPEN
- Friday, February 26th – Sunday, February 28th
- Riga, Latvia
- LCM (50m)
- Olympic Qualifying Competition
- Live Results
- Livestream
An array of athletes stemming from Finland, Belarus, India, Estonia and more have descended upon the city of Riga to race at this weekend’s 2021 Latvian Open. The athletes are gunning for Olympic-qualifying times, as this is a FINA-sanctioned meet, eligible to count towards making the swimmers’ respective rosters for this summer’s postponed Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Making her mark on the meet early on was 14-year-old Eneli Jefimova of Estonia. Contesting the women’s 100m breaststroke, the teen cranked out a big-time performance of 1:07.53.
Entering this meet, Jefimova’s personal best rested at the 1:10.55 she posted at this same meet last year. Flash forward to tonight, however, and the Estonian not only clocked a new monster best, but she hacked her old time to bits, knocking nearly 3 solid seconds off in her first sub-1:10 effort ever.
Splits for Jefimova’s performance included a 32.23 opener followed by a back-half of 35.30. With her outing here in Latvia, Jefimova dipped under the FINA ‘B’ selection standard for the Olympic Games, a mark which stands at 1:09.08, while she’s less than half a second from the ‘A’ standard of 1:07.07.
Finishing with the silver in the race, only .20 behind, was Belarusian Alina Zmushka, while Finnish athlete Jenna Laukkanen also got under the B standard in 1:08.33 for bronze.
The men’s 100m breast saw short course world record holder Ilya Shymanovich get to the wall first, producing a winning time of 1:00.48. The 26-year-old’s lifetime best in this long course format is represented by the 58.29 he put up last May in Marseilles. In Beijing in January of 2020, Shymanovich logged a time of 1:00.29 at the FINA Champions Swim Series.
Additional Winners:
- Finland’s Fanny Teijonsalo got it done for gold in the women’s 50m free, registering a time of 25.78 for the top prize.
- Ari-Pekka Liukkonen, Finland’s national record holder, took the men’s 50m free in 22.70.
- The women’s 200m back saw Aleksa Gold (EST) top the podium in a mark of 2:13.12.
- Yauhen Tsurkin of Belarus snagged 100m fly gold in 52.62.
My country athlete. I am very proud. Phelps was fifth age at 15. 2000 olympics.
My country athlete. I am very proud. Phelps was fifth age at 15. 2000 olympics.
Jefimova hmmmmm
Wow that’s really fast – would be half a second under Amanda Beard’s US 13-14 NAG. Hope to see her drop more time.
She only turned 14 in December too.
Alright let’s get this girl to the Olympics so we can hear Rowdy call this race. King v. Efimova v. Yefimova.