2019 SALNIKOV CUP (RUSSIA)
- Friday, December 20th – Saturday, December 21st
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- 25m (SCM) Pool
- Meet Site
- Entry Lists
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Live Results
While competing on night 2 of the 2019 Salnikov Cup, 15-year-old Evgenia Chikunova fired off a new World Junior Record in the women’s 200m breaststroke.
After establishing herself as the top-seeded swimmer of the morning heats with a time of 2:23.67, the St. Petersburg swimmer tapped into an entirely new gear to produce a gold medal-worthy mark of 2:17.71. That not only beat the field with the only time under 2:20, but her outing also easily cleared the World Junior Record she produced just last month at Russian Short Course Nationals.
Chikunova’s splits tonight included 1:07.04/1:10.67 to give her the fastest time of her young career. Entering this Salnikov Cup, the teen’s previous personal best rested at the 2:18.59 from the 2019 Russian Nationals, the time which also overtook the previous FINA WJR benchmark time of 2:18.90.
Splits for Chikunova’s previous WJR included 1:08.06/1:10.53, which means she was almost a full second quicker on the front half this time around.
Her 2:17.71 time tonight would have easily won gold in Glasgow at this year’s European Short Course Championships, clearing the 2:18.35 fellow Russian Maria Temnikova logged there for gold.
Chikunova now enters the list of all-time performers in slot #12 at just 15 years of age, inserting herself higher than American Olympic champion Lilly King, Jamaican Alia Atkinson and British breaststroker Molly Renshaw.
She’s not higher than King, who swam a 2.17.03 yesterday
King is a little too old for a WJR
The “higher than King” reference came from the last paragraph which speaks of the all time performers list, without age reference.
Thank you Dunc. That’s exactly what I was referring to.
It helps to read the whole article.