2024 VLADIMIR SALNIKOV CUP
- Thursday, December 19th – Saturday, December 21st
- Nevskaya Volna Water Sports Center, St. Petersburg, Russia
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Recap #1
- Results
The 2024 Vladimir Salnikov Cup concluded tonight in St. Petersburg, Russia with the three-day competition offering the nation’s swimmers a chance to cap off their 2024 year of racing on a high note.
Day 2 Highlights
32-year-old Oleg Kostin got day two off to a speedy start, topping the men’s 100m breast podium in a time of 56.32.
Splitting 11.84/14.58/14.88/15.02, Kostin led a trio of sub-57-second swimmers, with Kirill Prigoda and Ivan Kozhakin capturing the minor medals. The former clocked 56.78 for silver while the latter hit 56.96 for bronze.
Prigoda is not far removed from this year’s Short Course World Championships in Budapest, Hungary where the veteran fired off a time of 55.49, a new national record, to snag silver behind winner Qin Haiyang of China (55.47).
20-year-old long course world record holder in the women’s 200m breast, Evgenia Chikunova, produced a time of 1:04.49 to top the women’s 100m breaststroke edition.
That got the edge over Yuliya Efimova who settled for silver in 1:04.92. Tatyana Gorbunova, just 15 years of age, rounded out the podium in 1:06.19.
Pavel Samusenko was too quick to catch in the men’s 100m fly, crushing a gold medal-worthy mark of 50.17.
Samusenko split 10.58/12.49/13.23/13.87 to turn in the third-fastest time of his career. His personal best remains at the 49.94 logged in 2021 while he’s also been as swift as 50.10 from two years later.
St. Petersburg’s Roman Shevlyakov was next to the wall, just .17 behind in 50.34, holding a .08 lead on the front half.
Securing bronze was Egor Pavlov who notched 51.05, within striking distance of his PB of 50.58 from this meet 4 years ago. Pavlov wrangled up 200m fly bronze on night one of this competition.
Olympic medalist Kliment Kolesnikov got the job done for gold in the men’s 100m IM, beating the field by well over 2 seconds.
24-year-old K2 clocked 50.97 to take the victory decisively. Arseny Desyatov was the next-closest swimmer in 53.21 and Dmitry Savenko bagged bronze in 53.24.
Kolesnikov’s result was just off his lifetime best of 50.63, an outing he put up for gold at the 2018 Short Course World Championships.
Kolesnikov doubled up on day two by also racing in the men’s 50m back. He also found success in that sprint, registering 22.66 to deny Miron Lifintsev the gold.
Two-time 2024 Short Course World Championships gold medalist Lifintsev was a hair behind, logging 22.73 for silver. Samusenko also doubled up on his 100m fly from earlier in the day’s session, hitting 23.08 as the bronze medalist here.
In Budapest as a neutral athlete, Lifintsev earned 50m back gold in 22.47 and 100m back gold in 48.76 with both performances establishing new World Junior Records.
Egor Kornev followed up his 5th place performance in the men’s 100m free in Budapest with a podium-topping outing in St. Petersburg.
The 20-year-old notched 45.90, within range of his final time of 45.58 from just about a week ago. That decisively beat this domestic field, with Roman Zhidkov the next-fastest performer in 47.05.
Additional day two winners included Daria Klepikova topping the women’s 100m free podium in 52.15 while Maria Osetrova got the job done for gold in the women’s 50m back in 26.33.
Day 3 Highlights
Prigoda upgraded to gold in the men’s 200m breast on day three, clocking a time of 2:03.11.
That narrowly defeated runner-up Mikhail Dorinov who touched a fingernail back in 2:03.14 for the silver medal. Alexander Zhihgalov was next to the wall in 2:04.42 for the bronze.
Prigoda was the silver medalist in Budapest, producing a time of 2:01.88 to finish behind surprise winner Carles Coll Marti of Spain who upset the field with a national record-setting 2:01.55.
Chikunova earned another gold to close out the competition, with the St. Petersburg star firing off 2:17.46 as the women’s 200m breaststroke event champion.
Tatyana Gorbunova hit 2:20.74 for a far-behind silver while Anastasia Shilenkova rounded out the podium in 2:23.60.
For reference, Chikunova owns a personal best of 2:14.70, the reigning European Record set during the 2022 Solidarity Games.
K2 topped another podium before his time was up in St. Petersburg, winning the men’s 100m backstroke in one of two sub-50-second swims on the day.
Kolesnikov split 11.33/12.21/12.76/12.94 to ultimately hit the wall in 49.24. That was enough to beat out Samusenko by over half a second, with Samusenko registering 49.82. Evgeniy Shilovsky bagged bronze in 51.41.
A meet record nearly beat the dustin the women’s 200m IM, as winner Irina Zvyagintseva scored a time of 2:09.00. That fell within reach of the 2:08.32 Cup benchmark Irina Krivonogova put on the books at a previous edition.
Tonight, Yana Shakirova secured silver in 2:10.94 and Anastasia Sorokina earned bronze in 2:11.70.
Additional winners on the final day included Kirill Martynychev topping the men’s 800m free podium in 7:39.42 while Vladislav Reznichenko posted 1:42.98 to take the men’s 200m free.
Kostin came out on top of the men’s 50m fly field in 22.16 and Arina Surkova was dominant in the women’s 50m fly, putting up 25.00 to win by over half a second.
