Russian Relay Breaks World Junior Record in Men’s 400 Free Relay Competing as “Neutral Athletes”

2026 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, July 7 – Sunday, July 12, 2026
• Munich, Germany
• LCM (50 meters)
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results

A quartet of Russian swimmers, competing as Neutral Individual Athletes, have broken the World Junior Record in the men’s 400 free relay to open up the European Junior Swimming Championships on Tuesday in Munich.

The team of Matvei Chekalev (17), Egor Proshin (18*), Matvei Miliaev (17), and Mikhail Shcherbakov (18) combined for a time of 3:14.72. That clears Russia’s own World Junior Record of 3:15.38 done at the 2025 World Junior Championships, where Shcherbakov and Proshin were also part of the winning quartet.

Tuesday is Proshin’s 18th birthday.

Splits Comparison

The two returning legs were the two biggest difference-makers en route to the new record-setting swim. Proshin was 48.98 last year and 48.11 this year, both on a rolling start. Shcherbakov moved from leadoff to anchor and knocked almost a second off his split.

Everyone in the group swam at orbeyond their best individual splits.

• Chekalev previous PB – 50.06 (April 2026), went 49.65 (flat start)
• Proshin flat start PB 48.69, relay PB 48.16, went 48.11 (relay start)
• Miliaev flat start PB 48.95, relay PB 48.68, went 48.69 (relay start)
• Shcherbakov flat start PB 49.09, went 48.27 (relay start)

The Russian men are badly in need of a reload of their 400 free relay, which finished 9th and missed the A-Final at Worlds last year in 3:12.87. With a 48.59 leadoff split on that relay (Kolesnikov) and a 48.38 anchor split (Vasilii Kukushkin), the swimmers on this relay could be ready to jump in to the country’s top quartet as soon as this year, though none yet have the quality to move Russia close to a podium on their own.

Russia, in recent history, has been the dominant nation at these European Junior Swimming Championships. They were barred from the meet after their 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but were allowed back in last year as Neutral Athletes.

SwimSwam has reached out to World Aquatics to see whether this record will be recognized as belonging to “Russia” or “Neutral Athletes.”

Past records set by Russia during their partial suspension have been labeled as “Russia” if done at a domestic meet or “Neutral Athletes” if done at a meet where the team was competing as Neutral Athletes, as was the case with last year’s World Junior Championships. World Aquatics, like many governing bodies, have recently softened their stance toward Russia, though, so it is unclear how this record might be approached.