Kolesnikov Earns 2 Golds At Russian SC Championships To Take Over World Rankings

2023 RUSSIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• November 20th – November 25th
• St. Petersburg, Russia
• SCM (25m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
• Results

Several thrilling finishes took place on day four of the 2023 Russian Short Course Championships.

We already reported how 19-year-old Aleksandr Stepanov produced a new national record of 7:34.58 en route to winning the men’s 800m free. You can read more about his accomplishment here.

Newly minted 50m fly national record holder Arina Surkova was also in the water to contest the final of that event.

Last night 25-year-old Surkova posted a lifetime best of 24.58 to lead the field, easily overtaking her own previous Russian standard of 24.84 logged 3 years ago.

This evening, Surkova added slightly to put up a result of 24.68 but it was still enough to easily defeat the field in the sole sub-25-second result of the pack. Runner-up status went to Daria Tatarinova who clocked 25.47 for silver while Daria Klepikova rounded out the top 3 in 25.84.

The men’s 50m free saw Egor Kornev get the edge over the field, touching in a time of 21.15, a monster new personal best.

Entering this competition, Kornev’s PB rested at the 21.78 he logged last year, meaning he hacked over half a second off that result to win the gold. Daniil Markov settled for silver in the race this evening in 21.43 and Dmitry Zhavoronkov also landed on the podium in 21.44.

Kornev now ranks 5th in the world in this SCM 50 freestyle this season.

Following up on his 100m backstroke victory earlier in the competition, Kliment Kolesnikov added 2 more golds to his haul thus far.

Tonight the 23-year-old took the 100m IM in a time of 50.80 and then topped the 50m back podium in 22.55. The former outing represents the versatile star’s 2nd best performance of his career and the latter ties the 5th quickest on his resume.

K2 now wears the season’s world rankings crown in both events.

Additional Notes

• Iana Shakirova registered a time of 59.78 for gold and was the sole competitor under the minute barrier in the final.
• Oleg Kostin landed lane 4 for tomorrow night’s final of the men’s 50m fly. Kostin stopped the clock in 22.33 followed by Roman Shevlyakov who posted 22.46. The runner-up in the men’s 100m fly, Andrei Minakov, is in the mix with a 3rd-seeded 22.72, tied with Egor Yurchenko who hit an identical mark.
• The women’s 50m back semi-final saw Maria Kameneva earn the pole position in 26.72 in her bid to triple up on her 100m back and 100m free victories.
• A tight battle looks to unfold in tomorrow night’s women’s 100m breast final with the 50m breast podium swimmers all vying for gold. Evgenia Chikunova leads the pack with a 1:03.79 to already tie Estonian Eneli Jefimova as the #1 swimmer in the world. Alina Zmushka and Yuliya Efimova hit respective semi swims of 1:04.73 and 1:06.08 to chase Chikunova in the race.