2021 LEN EUROPEAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, November 2nd – Sunday, November 7th
- Aquatics Palace, Kazan Russia
- SCM (25m)
- Entries
- Results
The last day of prelims at the 2021 European Short Course Swimming Championships will be the shortest one we’ve seen so far, featuring just 3 events.
Racing will begin with the men’s 400 IM where Russia’s Ilya Borodin is entered atop the psych sheets with his 3:59.57. While he’s the only man with a time under 4 minutes, he’ll need to watch out for Olympic finalist Alberto Razzetti who will be in lane 4 for the first heat with his time of 4:01.57.
Tomoe Hvas’ scratch due to illness cleared the field up a little, but there are still a number of quick men to look out for.
Then in the women’s 400 freestyle, Anastasia Kirpichnikova of Russia will look to complete her sweep of the distance events. Kirpichnikova won the 800 freestyle early on in the meet in Russian record time and then repeated the feat in the 1500 freestyle, touching 0.29 seconds slower than Sarah Kohler’s world record.
The final prelim of the meet will be the mixed medley relays.
Follow along below for live recap and analysis as we get into the final day of racing at 2021 European Champs.
Annika Johnson & Retta Race contributed to this reporting.
Men’s 400 IM
- SC Euros Record: Laszlo Cseh (HUN) – 3:57.27 (2009)
- European Record: Laszlo Cseh (HUN) – 3:57.27 (2009)
- World Record: Daiya Seto (JPN) – 3:54.81 (2019)
Top 8
- BORODIN Ilya (RUS) – 4:04.91
- STUPIN Maxim (RUS) – 4:07.00
- RAZZETTI Alberto (ITA) – 4:08.80
- KOS Hubert (HUN) – 4:09.65
- MATTEAZZI Pier Andrea (ITA) – 4:10.17
- MATTENET Emilien (FRA) – 4:10.98
- TOSCAN Marius (SUI) – 4:11.89
- BEN SHITRIT Eytan (ISR) – 4:14.19
18-year-old Ilya Borodin really staked his claim on the top spot in the final on the backstroke, splitting a 1:01.5 to build his lead. While he defended his top seed title by 2 full seconds, he was about 5 seconds off his entry time.
His Russian teammate Maxim Stupin dominated heat one, finishing the race in 28.74 on the final 50. Italy’s Alberto Razzetti had a .24 lead after the butterfly, but that’s where Stupin decided to leave everyone in the dust. Hungarian 19-year-old Hubert Kos crept up on him a bit on the backstroke, splitting a 1:01.3 compared to Stupin’s 1:02.72, but it wasn’t enough to catch him.
Razzetti’s best time stands at 4:01.57 from the ISL in September, so who knows what he’ll do in the final.
Notably, Switzerland’s Marius Toscan blasted the fastest final 50-meter spit of 28.32, .06 faster than Borodin, to snag a spot in the final. This was a great swim for the 19-year-old who dropped 1.5 seconds from his lifetime best time from the FINA World Cup in October.
Women’s 400 Freestyle
- SC Euros Record: Camille Muffatt (FRA) – 3:54.85 (2012)
- European Record: Mireia Belmonte (ESP) – 3:54.52 (2013)
- World Record: Ariarne Titmus (AUS) – 3:53.92 (2018)
Top 8
- KIRPICHNIKOVA Anastasia (RUS) – 4:00.71
- EGOROVA Anna (RUS) – 4:02.42
- QUADARELLA Simona (ITA) – 4:03.67
- KESELY Ajna (HUN) – 4:03.86
- BACH Helena Rosendahl (DEN) – 4:04.11
- TUNCEL Merve (TUR) – 4:05.11
- HASSLER Julia (LIE) – 4:05.12
- GOSE Isabel Marie (GER) – 4:05.70
On-fire Anastasia Kirpichnikova is already within striking distance of the Russian national record with her morning swim in this 400m freestyle.
A winner of two golds here in the form of her 800m and 1500m free victories from earlier in the meet, 21-year-old Kirpichnikova produced a prelim swim of 4:00.71 to top the field.
In tonight’s final she’ll be flanked by teammate Anna Egorova and Italy’s Simona Quadarella, the latter of which is the defending 4free champion from Glasgow.
As far as the Russian record, Kirpichnikova would need to get under 4:00, with the national standard sitting at the 3:58.25 Veronika Andrusenko put on the books in 2019. However, Kirpichnikova, who competes in both the pool and open water, already nailed Russian records in both her aforementioned 800m and 1500m free so she’s on the right trajectory.
Mixed 4×50 Medley Relay
- SC Euros Record: Russia – 1:36.22 (2019)
- European Record: Russia – 1:36.22 (2019)
- World Record: Russia – 1:36.22 (2019)
Top 8
- Russia – 1:38.87
- Netherlands – 1:38.97
- Belarus – 1:39.36
- Denmark – 1:39.63
- Italy – 1:39.65
- Finland – 1:39.70
- Norway – 1:39.79
- Sweden – 1:39.90
Russia is the reigning World Record holder in this mixed medley relay and the nation has set itself up for success with a solid morning swim of 1:38.87.
The combination of Pavel Samusenko, Kirill Strelnikov, Svetlana Chimrova and Rozaliya Nastretdinova landed lane 4 ahead of a strong Dutch squad which included multi-medalists here Kira Toussaint and Arno Kamminga, and Kim Busch plus Jesse Puts. That combination produced a mark of 1:38.97, only .10 behind entering the final.
Italy lurks as the 5th-seeded squad out of the morning heat with a time of 1:39.65 and that was sans 100m breaststroke champion Nicolo Martinenghi. Instead, it was Alessandro Pinzuti on that leg punching a split of 26.03, still among the top 5 of the field.
The breaststroke leg may indeed prove critical, as this morning’s race already saw some of the fastest in history.
Belarusian bronze medalist here Ilya Shymanovich ripped a massive 25.12 while Turkey’s Emre Sakci was even quicker in 25.02. Look for a separate post on these performances.
50 br world record tonight?
Says “Hungarian 19-year-old crept up on him a bit on the backstroke, splitting a 1:01.3 compared to Stupin’s 1:02.72, but it wasn’t enough to catch him.” Presume this means Hubert Kos? Might want to clarify. TY
Russians got DQ’d in the mixed 4×50 from yesterday for swimming out of order.
https://swimswam.com/russia-stripped-of-mixed-free-relay-silver-poland-now-snags-bronze/
Kirpichkinova is going to do something special again tonight
Ledecky is always ready to go big in prelims when she doesn’t have to . I liked that Anastasia tried it here.