Andrei Minakov Clips Russian Record in 100 Fly at YOGs

2018 YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES

16-year-old Andrei Minakov has broken the Russian national record in the 100m butterfly with his time of 51.12 at the Youth Olympic Games. The old record was a 51.16, just four hundredths slower, set in 2017 by Egor Kuimov at the 2017 World Jr Championships in Indianapolis.

SPLIT COMPARISON

Minakov, tonight

  • 24.22 – 26.90 (51.12)

Kuimov, 2017 World Jrs

  • 24.07 – 27.09 (51.16)

Minakov was a tad bit more reserved going out than Kuimov was in 2017, but came back harder. Compare this to Minakov’s race against Kuimov at World Juniors, when he was 3rd in 51.84, splitting 24.11/27.73. He’s worked on his back-half, and it has seriously helped, as he just slashed seven tenths off of his old PR.

In addition to the new record, Minakov beat Hungary’s Kristof Milak for the gold medal at the YOGs. Milak was the 2017 silver medalist behind Caeleb Dressel in this race at Worlds in 2017, where he set the World Jr record, and then went on to beat Kuimov and Minakov for the World Jr title. Tonight, Milak settled for silver in 51.50, unable to come back under 27.0 on the back-half.

The future of Russian butterfly is very bright — Kuimov, the 2nd-fastest in Russian history, just turned 19 this summer. Minakov, meanwhile, won’t turn 17 until next March.

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bobo gigi
5 years ago

Just another reminder that the Russian men’s medley relay in 2020 will be very dangerous for the gold medal with Kolesnikov, Minakov and the others. Plenty of young swimmers who will probably continue to improve in the next 2 years.

Nilesh
5 years ago

How Fast was Phelps when he was 16? Minakov’s swim is simply ridiculous

Timpossible
Reply to  Nilesh
5 years ago

Would guess more than a second slower since the WC gold went on 52.10 in 2001 and he wasn’t on the podium.

Brownish
Reply to  Nilesh
5 years ago

Doesn’t matter. Bence Biczo was faster (200 fly) and we can see what happened. He is 4th in Hungay at the moment.

ITR
Reply to  Brownish
5 years ago

That was/is a result of bad coaching imo. He needs to improve his 100 first before he can improve his 200. Doesn’t matter how good his endurance is he just can’t start under 55 easily and if he does he can’t hold the second 100 together. Just look at his top 10 times for example…I hope they realize this because he deserves an outstanding result, he is a good guy. Being 4th in Hungary in 200 fly sounds “bad” on paper but this also means being 4th in Europe and top 10 on the world.

DMacNCheez
Reply to  Nilesh
5 years ago

Let’s compare people to Phelps when they’re as fast as his PBs, no need to create expectations

bobo gigi
Reply to  Nilesh
5 years ago

So stupid to compare 2 different periods of time. Swimming was slower 2 decades ago. Was even slower 4 decades ago. For different reasons swimming is faster and faster overall. It would mean that Dave Walters for example is better than Mark Spitz or Matt Biondi because he was faster. 😆 He was faster but almost everybody has already forgotten his name now. And more than times I’m interested in seeing if Minakov can win a world gold next year in that event. You can compare to MP about olympic and world gold medals won and world records broken. The rest is useless.

Drama King
Reply to  bobo gigi
5 years ago

You mean a Junior world gold 🤔

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

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