Chupkov Takes 200 Breast At 2021 Vladimir Salnikov Cup

2021 VLADIMIR SALNIKOV CUP

• Monday, December 27th & Tuesday, December 28th
• St. Petersburg, Russia
• SCM (25m)
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Preview
• Results

The annual Vladimir Salnikov Cup kicked off yesterday in St. Petersburg and 24-year-old Rio Olympic medalist Anton Chupkov was indeed in the water.

The man who earlier this fall revealed his impending retirement took the 200m breaststroke here in a time of 2:03.67, grabbing the only sub-2:04 effort of the field.

Opening in 59.87 and closing in 1:03.80, Chupkov was able to hold off Mikhail Dorinov, his fellow Russian runner-up who punched a mark of 2:04.10.

For Chupkov, his effort here would have placed 7th in the 2021 FINA Short Course World Championships which just concluded from Abu Dhabi. He owns a lifetime best of 2:01.57 from the 2018 FINA World Cup.

Also making a mark here on night one of the two-day affair was medley relay gold medalist from Abu Dhabi Oleg Kostin. The 29-year-old reaped the top prize in the 50m fly, registering a winning result of 22.10.

That not only beat out Stanford’s Andrei Minakov, who touched in 22.36 but it established a new meet record. The previous competition standard stood at 22.37 from 2020.

Kostin’s 22.10 fell just .03 outside of his lifetime best of 22.07. a result that renders the veteran as the world’s 10th fastest man of all time.

Kostin also earned the 50m breast gold, posting a time of 26.09. His PB rests at the 25.90 he logged 3 years ago.

On the women’s side, Nika Godun took home 2 golds on this first night, first in the 100m breast and the in the 100m IM.

In the former, Godun posted 1:04.96 to get to the wall first, not too far off her own PB of 1:04.64 from this year’s European Short Course Championships where she took 50m breast bronze.

In the 100m IM here in St. Petersburg, Godun punched a time of 58.82 to beat the field by over a second.

Additional Notable Results:

• Dmitry Zhavoronkov hit the only sub-48 second time of the men’s 100m free pack, touching in 47.43 to top the podium.
• The women’s 200m free saw Valeria Salamatina produce a winning time of 1:56.06.
• Mark Nikolaev got it done big-time in the men’s 100m back, posting the only time of the field under the 50-second threshold. Nikolaev earned gold in 49.40, over a second ahead of runner-up Pavel Samusenko who scored silver in 50.70. Nikolaev’s PB sits at 49.24, so the man was within striking distance of putting up the best swim of his career.
• Maria Kameneva earned 50m back gold in 26.35, within .20 of her Russian record of 26.15, while Rosalia Nasretdinova reaped the top prize in the women’s 50m free in 24.52.
• The reigning Short Course World Championships silver medalist Ilya Borodin punched a time of 1:55.97 to come out ahead of the 200mIM field. He was 1:55.34 at this same meet a year ago