Andrei Minakov Swims His Fastest 100 Fly (51.04) Since Tokyo On Day 2 Of Russian Championships

2024 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• April 14-19, 2024
• Kazan, Russia
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Live Results
• Livestream
• Day 1 Recap

The second finals session of the 2024 Russian Championships included the men’s 100 backstroke, women’s 50 backstroke, men’s 400 freestyle, women’s 50 breaststroke, women’s 200 butterfly, men’s 100 breaststroke, men’s 200 IM, and women’s 800 freestyle. Semifinals of the men’s 100 butterfly and women’s 100 freestyle were also contested.

The men’s 100 back was a clear highlight, where 18-year-old Miron Lifintsev backed up his semifinal performance of 52.62 with a new World Junior record in the final. He roared to splits of 25.34/27.00 to log a new mark of 52.34 and re-write the record book. His speedy effort overtook the previous standard of 52.53, which Kliment Kolesnikov posted back at the 2018 European Championships.

Kolesnikov was 2nd in tonight’s race in a sub-53 second outing of 52.80. 21-year-old Dmitry Savenko made it 3 in the 52-second sector with his bronze medal-worthy 52.90. He demolished his previous career-best time of 53.42 from April of 2023. 2021 Olympic Champion Evgeny Rylov (53.13) settled for 5th place.

The 100 fly semifinals were dominated by Russian record holder Andrei Minakov, who recorded his fastest time in nearly three years. He hit the wall in 51.04, his 5th fastest time ever in the event and under his previous post-Tokyo Olympics best of 51.23. He opened in 23.33 through the front half tonight before finishing in 27.71 over the final 50. He will have the opportunity to improve upon his time in tomorrow’s final, where he could swim a sub-51 second time for the 4th time in his career. He also split 50.14 on the mixed 4×100 medley relay to end the session, helping Tatarstan to gold in 3:48.06.

Andrei Minakov, Top 5 Fastest 100 Butterfly Performances:

1. 50.83 — July 2019, Gwangju World Championships
2. 50.88 — July 2021, Tokyo Olympic Games
3. 50.94 — July 2019, Gwangju World Championships
4. 51.00 — July 2021, Tokyo Olympic Games
5. 51.04 — April 2024, Russian Championships 

In the women’s 50 back final, 24-year-old Maria Kameneva defended her top seed from Sunday’s semifinals with a winning time of 27.83. She was a tenth slower than her 27.73 clocking from yesterday, but did lead a 1-2 punch with her training partner, Alina Gayfutdinova (27.93). Kameneva has been as quick as 27.66 in the 50m sprint and holds the 50m free Russian record.

Martin Malyutin nearly doubled up on middle distance free wins in Kazan this week, as he posted a final time of 3:49.01 to place 2nd in the 400 free. In Sunday’s 200 free final, Malyutin threw down a swift 1:45.83 marker to rank 17th in the world. Alexander Stepanov won today’s 400 in 3:47.30 and showcased an impressive negative split approach: 1:54.82/1:52.48.

Three athletes broke 31-seconds in the women’s 50m breast event, with Tatiana Belonogoff (30.54) out-touching Evgeniia Chikunova (30.75) and Yuliya Efimova (30.78) at the wall. Belonogoff’s winning effort of 30.54 was just outside her best time of 30.33 from February. Chukinova was a little shy of her 30.54 lifetime best from this meet last year, where she completely obliterated the world record in the 200m breast (2:17.55).

The men’s 100 breast saw a major shakeup from last night’s semifinals, with Ivan Kozhakin (59.10) touching 1st ahead of Kirill Prigoda (59.37) and Danil Semyaninov (59.70). Kozhakin and Prigoda were tied through the first 50m at 27.61, but Kozhakin increased the pace on the backend to touch ahead by 0.27. In yesterday’s semifinals, it was Semyaninov who led the charge, but he clocked-in for 3rd tonight.

Longtime National Team member Prigoda has a personal best of 58.92 in this event. He stopped the clock in 58.98 at this meet a year ago. Kozhakin notched a bronze medal-winning time of 59.04 in 2023 which still stands as his career best, and even though he was marginally slower tonight, he still moved up to National Champion status.

Other Results:

• The men’s 200 IM saw a tight battle ensue between 2003-born athletes Ilya Borodin and Alexey Sudarev. Borodin, who holds the Russian record in this event at 1:57.30, snared gold by just 0.10. The pair touched in sub-1:58 performances of 1:57.86 and 1:57.96, respectively. They were both 25.6 on fly and 29.6 on back, but Sudarev took the lead by eight tenths on breast before Borodin rallied back on the final 50.
• Veteran Svetlana Chimrova was the sole competitor to swim under 2:10 in the women’s 200 fly. She punched a final time of 2:09.35 to clear the field by well over a second. The 28-year-old holds the Russian record, courtesy of her 2:07.33 from the 2018 European Championships.
• Daria Trofimova (54.06) swam to the fastest semifinal performance in the women’s 100 free, just off her best time of 54.02 from July. Daria Surushkina (54.50) sits in 2nd place as the final approaches in less than 24 hours.
• 15-year-old Ksenia Misharina touched in 8:29.05 to win the women’s 800 free title. She broke through in a big way last April with three Russian Youth records.