2021 RUSSIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, November 16th – Sunday, November 21st
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- SCM (25m)
- Qualifying competition for World Short Course Championships
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
- Entries/Results
- Livestream
The story of day four of these 2021 Russian Short Course Championships was one of slim margins in terms of swimmers getting under the qualification times for next month’s Short Course World Championships.
With the European Short Course Championships serving as the first qualifying meet for Russian swimmers, this competition here in St. Petersburg is the other opportunity for racers to add their names to the consideration list for Abu Dhabi.
Among the close calls tonight was Arina Surkova in the women’s 50m butterfly. The 23-year-old fired off a winning time of 25.39 to clear the 25.42 QT by just .03. Surkova was one of two swimmers under the 26-second threshold, with Daria Vaskina claiming silver in 25.94 while Svetlana Chimrova rounded out the top 3 in 26.08.
However, Surkova already earned a qualification time by way of her 5th place finish in the women’s 50m fly in Budapest. There she produced a mark of 25.16 to fall just .07 outside of bronze in the event.
Sergey Fesikov also narrowly dipped under the qualification time while racing the men’s 100m IM this evening. Fesikov touched in 52.05, with the QT sitting at 52.10. In Budapest, Fesikov logged a time of 52.83 for 8th place in this event, so the 32-year-old most likely added his name to the Abu Dhabi roster with today’s swim.
Finally, the men’s 50m backstroke saw on-fire Pavel Samusenko get it done for gold. Samusenko has already nailed personal best times in the 100m fly and 100m back earlier at this competition and tonight hit a mark of 23.16 to top the 50m back podium.
Although he was faster at the European Short Course Championships where he put up a time of 22.81 for 4th place, this gold medal-worthy result tonight in St. Petersburg is additional motivation for the 20-year-old with two days remaining at this meet.
