Kostin Comes Close To 50 Fly Record At Russian SC Championships

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/Day 4 Recap
• Results

The fifth day of the 2023 Russian Short Course Championships brought another breaststroke battle between Russians Evgenia Chikunova and Yuliya Efimova and Belarus’ Alina Zmushka.

The same women who landed on the 50m breast podium comprised the 100m distance race this evening, with 19-year-old Chikunova winding up on top once again.

Opening in a speedy 29.99, Chikunova ultimately got to the wall in a time of 1:03.80 for the gold, just .04 off her best-ever in the event.

Zmushka settled for silver in 1:04.41 while Efimova, in her first competition post-Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, bagged the bronze in 1:05.37.

Post-race, Chikunova stated, “I hoped to swim faster than last year, but it didn’t work out, I messed up somewhere. I really wanted to win, and apparently that had an effect.”

Chikunova now ranks #2 in the world this season, setting only behind another teen, Eneli Jefimova, of Estonia.

The men’s 50m fly was another fierce contest, with 31-year-old Oleg Kostin putting his own Russian national record on notice en route to becoming the champion.

Kostin stopped the clock in a mark of 22.11, just .04 off his lifetime best and Russian standard of 22.07 from 2019.

Roman Shevlyakov, already the 100m butterfly gold medalist here, nailed a result of 22.27 as the runner-up while Andrei Minakov also landed on the podium in 22.41.

On his performance, veteran Kostin said, “It’s not that I was counting on a record, but I’ve been seeking this result for so long that I would, of course, like to beat it. It’s not working yet.”

Kostin now ranks #2 in the world this season.

Arina Surkova already logged a new national record in the 50m fly and tonight she captured 2 top seeds.

The 25-year-old multi-international medalist posted a mark of 23.83 in the 50m free to register one of two sub-24-second times of the field. Joining her was Maria Kameneva who posted 23.87 for day six’s final.

Surkova also topped the field in the 100m fly, putting up a semi-final outing of 56.47 to lead the pack by over a second.

Kameneva was in the pool later in the session to take on the women’s 50m back final, registering a mark of 26.36 for the gold

Although that’s well off her national record of 25.60 from last year, it was enough to beat out Arina Khiteva and Aleksandra Kurilkina who earned respective silver and bronze. Khiteva hit 26.77 and Kurilkina was also under the 27-second threshold in 26.94,

Ilya Borodin doubled up on his 200m IM victory with another gold in the 400m IM event. Borodin produced a swift 3:59.50 to win decisively, getting to the wall over 3 seconds ahead of the next-closest competitor.

Snagging silver was Maxim Stupin who touched in 4:02.71 and Alexey Sudarev was next in line in 4:05.04.

Borodin owns a lifetime best of 3:56.47 in this event, a time he turned in for silver at the 2021 Short Course World Championships.

This trio now takes over the top 3 spots on the season’s world rankings.

Additional Notes

• 14-year-old Ksenia Misharina became the Russian national champion in the women’s 1500m free. She logged a winning result of 15:53.75 as the sole competitor of the field to dip under the 16:00 barrier. That’s a big-time improvement for the teen who put up a mark of 16:17.43 for 4th place at this same competition last year.
• Iana Shakriova topped the women’s 200m IM podium in a time of 2:09.62. That’s .04 quicker than the 2:09.66 she produced for gold at the 2022 edition of this competition so she successfully defended her title.
• Egor Kornev posted a time of 45.92 to lead the men’s 100m free semi-final, but he’ll be hunted by Kliment Kolesnikov, already a multi-gold medalist here. K2 scored 46.68 to lurk as the 2nd-seeded swimmer.
• Belarus’ Ilya Shymanovich topped the men’s 50m breast semi-final in a time of 25.87, already a world-leading effort.