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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Oleksandr Zheltyakov, one of the top up-and-coming talents in Ukraine, had an exceptional performance on the opening day of action at the Swim Open Stockholm meet Thursday.
Zheltyakov, 17, fired off a time of 1:57.18 in the final of the men’s 200 backstroke, tying his Ukrainian National Record set last year to pick up a decisive victory.
Relative to his swim 12 months ago, Zheltyakov was much quicker on the front half of Thursday’s race but gave up time on the last 50, perhaps indicating a big drop is coming once he hits a full taper.
Split Comparison
| Zheltyakov, April 2022 | Zheltyakov, April 2023 |
| 27.74 | 27.05 |
| 57.46 (29.72) | 56.55 (29.50) |
| 1:27.64 (30.18) | 1:26.80 (30.25) |
| 1:57.18 (29.54) | 1:57.18 (30.38) |
Amidst the unimaginable difficulties going on in his home country, Zheltyakov has been thriving in the pool over the last year. He initially broke the National Record at the Hungarian Nationals last April, a meet the Ukrainian juniors were welcomed to by the Hungarian Swimming Association, and he followed up with an excellent summer.
After making his Long Course World Championship debut in Budapest, Zheltyakov won silver in both the 100 and 200 back at the European Junior Championships in early July, and he also competed at LC Euros in Rome before closing out the year as a relay-only swimmer at Short Course Worlds.
Zheltyakov went 1-2 in the 200 back with fellow Ukrainian Vadym Naumenko (2:00.76) in Stockholm, and moves into the top 10 in the world rankings this season while also earning a berth at the World Championships, getting well under the FINA ‘A’ cut of 1:58.07.
When Zheltyakov first broke the Ukrainian Record last year, he took down a 13-year-old mark previously held by Oleksandr Isakov, who clocked 1:58.74 back in November 2009.
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