Evgeny Rylov Hits Fastest 200 Back Since Tokyo (1:55.50) To Close Russian Championships

2023 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The highlight of the final day of the Russian Swimming Championships was undoubtedly the performance from Evgeniia Chikunova, as the 18-year-old obliterated the world record in the women’s 200 breaststroke by nearly a second and a half in a time of 2:17.55.

Chikunova’s time knocked 1.40 seconds off the previous record of 2:18.95, set by South African Tatjana Schoenmaker at the Tokyo Olympics, and marked a massive personal best, with her previous PB sitting at 2:20.41 from last year’s Solidarity Games.

There were a number of other standout swims on the sixth and final day in Kazan, including reigning Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov recording his fastest 200 back swim in two years.

Rylov, the 2021 Olympic champion in both the men’s 100 and 200 back, put up a time of 1:55.50 to win the 200-meter event on Friday, marking his fastest swim since winning gold in Tokyo in a time of 1:53.27.

The 26-year-old moves into second in the world this season, narrowly trailing Australian Joshua Edwards-Smith (1:55.42). Rylov’s swim is also the fastest of 2023, with Edwards-Smith having produced his time in December.

2022-2023 LCM Men 200 Back

HubertHUN
Kos
07/28
1:54.14
2Ryan
Murphy
USA1:54.8307/28
3Roman
Mityukov
SUI1:55.3407/28
4Joshua
Edwards-Smith
AUS1:55.4212/13
5Evgeny
Rylov
RUS1:55.5004/21
View Top 26»

Rylov, also the 2017 and 2019 world champion in the 200 back, had his quickest time of 2022 come in at 1:56.98, set at this meet last year.

Aleksei Tkachev claimed the runner-up spot in a time of 1:57.20, knocking more than three-tenths off his previous best to out-touch Dmitry Savenko (1:57.21).

In the opening event of the night, Vladislav Grinev roared to victory in the men’s 100 freestyle, becoming the 10th swimmer sub-48 this season in 47.97 to rank eighth in the world (splitting 22.83/25.14).

Grinev owns a personal best time of 47.43, set in 2019.

Andrei Minakov, who has been as fast as 47.57, had the fastest back half in the field (25.07) to claim second in 48.32, while Kliment Kolesnikov rounded out the top three in 48.54.

Minakov now ranks 16th in the world this season, while Kolesnikov’s semi-final effort of 48.29 slots him into a tie for 14th.

2022-2023 LCM Men 100 Free

KyleAUS
Chalmers
07/27
47.15
2Pan
Zhanle
CHN47.2205/01
3Jack
Alexy
USA47.3107/27
4Maxime
Grousset
FRA47.4207/27
5Matthew
Richards
GBR47.4507/27
6Alessandro
Miressi
ITA47.5407/23
7David
Popovici
ROU47.6104/08
8Nandor
Nemeth
HUN47.6207/26
View Top 27»

Later in the session, Kolesnikov and Grinev teamed up to produce a blistering time in the 400 medley relay for Moscow.

The quartet of Kolesnikov (52.75), Danil Semyaninov (59.23), Petr Zhikharev (50.65) and Grinev (47.47) combined for a time of 3:30.10, which is notably faster than what Great Britain swam to win bronze at last year’s World Championships by over a second (3:31.31).

In the women’s 100 fly, Svetlana Chimrova reeled off the third-fastest swim of her career and fastest in six years to claim victory in 57.34, moving into seventh in the world this season. The 27-year-old set the Russian Record of 57.17 at the 2017 Russian Nationals.

2022-2023 LCM Women 100 Fly

ZhangCHN
Yufei
07/24
56.12
2Torri
Huske
USA56.1806/29
3Gretchen
Walsh
USA56.3406/29
4Kate
Douglass
USA56.4306/29
5Maggie
MacNeil
CAN56.4507/24
6Regan
Smith
USA56.6003/04
7Claire
Curzan
USA56.6106/29
8Emma
McKeon
AUS56.7406/13
View Top 26»

Arina Surkova concluded her busy week with two more individual events on Friday, first placing second to Chimrova in the 100 fly (57.93) and then winning the 50 free in 24.58. Surkova set a best time of 24.50 in the semi-finals of the 50 free, ranking her sixth in the world this season.

Maria Kameneva, the 50 free National Record holder at 24.20, was the runner-up to Surkova in 24.97.

Also moving into the top 10 in the world this year was Aleksandr Stepanov and Kirill Martynychev, who had an exciting battle in the men’s 1500 free.

Stepanov, who delivered a Russian Record of 7:42.47 in the 800 free early in the meet, made his move with 200 meters to go, pulling away from Martynychev to earn the victory in 14:55.04, dropping more than three seconds from his previous best set last year (14:58.23).

Martynychev, who swam a personal best of 14:52.66 at the Tokyo Olympics to make the final (ultimately placing sixth in 14:55.85), was just under three seconds back for second in 14:57.90.

Stepanov now ranks ninth in the world this year, while Martynychev is 11th.

2022-2023 LCM Men 1500 Free

Ahmed TUN
Hafnaoui
07/30
14:31.54
2Bobby
Finke
USA14:31.5907/30
3Florian
Wellbrock
GER14:34.8904/21
4Daniel
Wiffen
IRL14:34.9104/14
5Samuel
Short
AUS14:37.2807/30
6 Mykhailo
Romanchuk
UKR14:40.2104/14
7Lukas
Martens
GER14:40.8504/21
8Sven
Schwarz
GER14:43.5308/11
9Oliver
Klemet
GER14:45.3904/21
10Liwei
Fei
CHN14:46.5905/03
11Daniel
Jervis
GBR14:46.9504/06
View Top 26»

OTHER EVENTS

  • Aleksandr Kudashev (1:55.68) held off Aleksandr Kharlanov (1:55.80) to earn a win in the men’s 200 fly, leaning on his early speed to get the job done. Kharlanov was nearly two seconds back of Kudashev at the halfway mark, but threw down a 29.12 split on the third 50 to pull within four-tenths of the lead. Kudashev owns a PB of 1:54.56 from last year, while Kharlanov’s performance on Friday marked a new best by a full second.
  • Anna Egorova (1:58.63) got the job done in the women’s 200 free over Daria Trofimova (1:58.71), as the 800 free winner gets the better of the 100 free champion.
  • Current world #1 Ilya Shymanovich won the men’s 50 breast in a time of 26.73, having established a Belarusian Record of 26.28 to rank #2 all-time at the Belarus Open earlier this month. Russia’s Andrey Nikolaev was second in 26.86, just shy of his semi-final performance (26.84) which ranks him fourth in the world this season.
  • Shymanovich added a 58.30 breast split on Belarus’ 400 medley relay, while Kirill Prigoda was also sub-59 in 58.89 for Saint Petersburg.
  • At the end of the session, Chikunova was back in action in the women’s 400 medley relay, splitting 1:05.09 on breast to team up with Eggi Vlada (1:01.18), Svetlana Chimrova (58.19) and Daria Ustinova (55.35) to earn Saint Petersburg the victory in 3:59.81.

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Vinay
1 year ago

Let’s see if Joshua Edwards Smith can beat him when it matters the most

Theloniuspunk
1 year ago

Man, Minakov is on the heat sheets for US Masters scy champs next weekend. Busy dude.

Andrew
1 year ago

i’m no fan of Rylov by any stretch, but knowing that Murphy is pissed due to him swimming brings me joy

#beardown
#cryonyoubears

KnifeSmile
1 year ago

Apparently two Russian swimmers are switching to another countries

European champ Kirpichnikova to France and backstroker Mark Nikolaev to Australia

Last edited 1 year ago by KnifeSmile
Sub13
Reply to  KnifeSmile
1 year ago

What’s the source for this? Not sure it’s that easy

KnifeSmile
Reply to  Sub13
1 year ago
Yozhik
Reply to  KnifeSmile
1 year ago

Interesting are comments by Salnikov in this article:” The procedure is such that we cannot do anything about to prevent it from happening”
The “prevent” is actually too soft in translation. “To not let it happen” is more appropriate but still doesn’t reflect accurately Salnikov’s KGB tone.

Troyy
Reply to  Yozhik
1 year ago

World Aquatics have given them a helping hand by changing the nationality rules recently so it’ll be hard for any athlete that hasn’t already resided in another country for a long time to change nationalities in time for Paris.

That said, hasn’t Kirpichnikova been in France for quite a long time?

Last edited 1 year ago by Troyy
Aussie Crawl
Reply to  Sub13
1 year ago

Correct Mark Nikolaev swam
Last week on the Gold Coast
At the Aussie swimming championships.

Joel
Reply to  Aussie Crawl
1 year ago

He was a visitor. He’s been training on the Gold Coast for a while though

Yozhik
Reply to  KnifeSmile
1 year ago

What would happen if Kirpichnikova wins some medal and comes to the podium wrapped in Russian Flag?

ooo
Reply to  Yozhik
1 year ago

French flag carried the wrong way. Why would she do this? Not too surprised by her switch, she did not participate in the various meets held by the barbarians since the beginning of the war.

Togger
1 year ago

Generally I have sympathy for individual Russian swimmers who can’t compete internationally because of a war they might privately oppose.

However, I’d be delighted if we never heard of Rylov again.

Greg
1 year ago

I’m curious what big Murph is thinking right now.

Vinay
Reply to  Greg
1 year ago

Curian what aussie backstrokers are thinking right now?

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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