Anton Chupkov Clocks 59.43 100 Breast in Semis on Day 1 of Russian Champs

2022 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• April 24-29, 2022
• Kazan, Russia
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Results

The Russian Swimming Championships kicked off on Sunday in Kazan, featuring the nation’s top swimmers. This meet would have served as a selection meet for the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, however, FINA has banned all Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing in FINA sanctioned event through the end of the year due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. There’s an additional wrinkle as FINA has told SwimSwam that they’re investigating whether Evgeny Rylov, who is competing in the meet, has already broken the ban FINA levied on him last week.

Rylov raced the men’s 100 backstroke on Sunday, rolling through prelims then finishing 6th in semifinals to qualify for the final. He swam a 54.15 in semis, well off the 51.98 he swam to win Gold in Tokyo last summer. Mark Nikolaev and Pavel Samusenko tied for first in semifinals, both clocking 53.73. It ought to be a thrilling final on Monday, as Kliment Kolesnikov the Olympic Silver medalist last summer, finished 4th in semis with a 53.90.

In semifinals of the men’s 100 breast, 4 men dipped under 1:00, led by Anton Chupkov, who swam a 59.43. Kirill Prigoda was right behind, swimming a 59.53. Danil Sem’yaninov was 3rd in semis, clocking a 59.64, while Andrey Nikolayev touched 4th in 59.77.

Maria Kameneva was dominant in semifinals of the women’s 100 back, swimming a 59.80 to touch as the only swimmer under 1:01 in the field.

Nika Godun swam the fastest time in semifinals of the women’s 50 breast, speeding to a 31.22. Elena Bogomolova was right behind, touching in 31.23.

Alexander Egorov won the men’s 400 free final, swimming a 3:47.03. He opened up a significant lead early in the race, splitting 1:52.94 on the first 200 of the race. He was able to maintain that lead, touching first by nearly 2 seconds at the finish. Irina Krivonogova won the women’s 400 IM in 4:46.18.