Alina Zmushko Breaks Belarusian Record to Open 2022 National Championships

2022 Belarusian Open Swimming Championships

• April 5-9, 2022
• Brest, Belarus
• Long Course Meters (50 meters)
• Television Information
• Live Results

289 athletes from Belarus and Russia applied for participation in this week’s Belarusian Open Swimming Championships in Brest.

With Belarus barred from competition at this year’s World Aquatics Championships because of the country’s participation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this meet is not a direct selector for that event. Instead, the focus is on individual champions and team scores.

Team Scores After Day 1 (By Region):

1. Minsk – 523
2. Gomel region – 462
3. Brest region – 427
4. Minsk region – 320
5. Vitebsk region – 298
6. Grodno region – 291
7. Mogilev region – 191

The first day of competition saw a new Belarusian Record set by Alina Zmushko in the women’s 50 breaststroke. In the semifinals to start the session, she swam 30.43, which broke her own National Record of 30.61 from 2019. She was slower later in the session, swimming 30.83 in the final, but that was still good enough for a win.

The meet also saw the country’s two best-known swimmers and ISL stars pick up wins. Ilya Shymanovich won the men’s 200 breaststroke individually in 2:12.87. That’s about two seconds shy of his personal best. While he’s the European short course champion in that event, in long course it is his weakest of the three breaststrokes.

He still had enough to win by five-and-a-half seconds.

He also swam 52.18 in the 100 free on a relay leadoff for Minsk’s victorious 400 free relay.

Anastasia Shkurdai, meanwhile, won the women’s 200 backstroke in 2:11.12 – almost 11 seconds ahead of the field. That’s six-tenths away from her personal best in the event.

In an interview with SwimSwam last week, Shkurdai’s coach Olga Yasianovich said that she accepts the ban based on the circumstances in Ukraine.

“If this somehow helps end the war in Ukraine, so be it,” she said.

She also said that she and Shkurdai are working on moving to the US to train in the near future.

Other Day 1 Winners:

• Grigori Pekarsky won the 50 fly in 23.22, which shaves .15 seconds off his personal best time. That leaves him .32 seconds short of the National Record of 22.90 that was set in 2013 by Yauhen Tsurkin.
• Oksana Bolshakova won the women’s 400 IM in 5:02.82. That’s a best time for the teenager by a second-and-a-half.
• Margarita Poleshuk won the women’s 200 fly in 2:20.90.
• Kontantin Kurochkin won the men’s 400 free in 3:55.34. That’s about a second shy of his best time.