2020 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, October 25th – Friday, October 30th
• Aquatics Palace, Kazan, Russia
• LCM (50m)
• Olympic-qualifying competition
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap
• Entries/Results

Just two events after Anton Chupkov roared to the wall in a new Russian national record in the men’s 100m breaststroke (58.83), Ilya Borodin got the job done in similar fashion in the men’s 200m IM.

After posting a morning swim of 2:00.38, already a personal best, to claim the top seed, the 17-year-old ripped the first-sub-2:00 effort his career. Borodin touched in 1:58.00 to crush the field and claim the national title, overtaking the previous Russian standard of 1:58.16 in the process. That previous record was set by Andrey Zhilkin en route to finishing 9th at the 2019 FINA World Championships.

Borodin’s splits for this evening’s outing include the following: 25.95/29.83/33.70/28.52. Zhilkin’s race breakdown was as follows: 24.89/30.74/34.64/27.89.

Borodin finished 6th out of the 200m IM heats at the 2019 European Junior Championships but was shut out of the final due to the 2-per-nation rule. Teammates Sergei Isaev and Danil Zayytsev both beat Borodin’s mark of 2:02.53 produced there in Kazan.

For perspective, 17-year-old Borodin’s 1:58.00 time here would rank the teen as the 3rd fastest 17-18-year-old American ever in the event, sitting only behind Olympic icon Michael Phelps (National Age Record of 1:55.94) and rising superstar Carson Foster‘s 1:57.59.

As another big bonus, Borodin’s time tonight easily clears the FINA ‘A’ qualifying standard for the Tokyo Olympic Games, with that time situated at a 1:59.67.