2024 RUSSIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, November 21st – Tuesday, November 26th
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- SCM (25m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Entries/Results
- Livestream
The 2024 Russian Short Course Championships continued from St. Petersburg with another national record biting the dust on the men’s side.
Racing in the final of the 800m freestyle, Saveliy Luzin fired off the fastest time of his career, a mark of 7:33.97 for gold.
Luzin got to the wall narrowly ahead of Kirill Martynychev who settled for silver in 7:34.21, the only other outing of the field under the 7:40 barrier. Ivan Morgun rounded out the podium in 7:40.01.
As for Luzin, the 19-year-old’s outing overtook the previous Russian standard of 7:34.58 Alexander Stepanov put on the books at last year’s edition of this competition.
Stepanov was indeed in tonight’s race but fell to 6th place in a result of 7:44.68.
Luzin’s previous personal best rested at the 7:55.23 put up 3 years ago, so he obliterated that time with tonight’s new record.
Luzin now ranks #2 in the world this season, sitting only behind leader Ahmed Jaouadi of Tunisia who owns the top time of 7:33.84.
2024-2025 SCM Men 800 Free
JAOUADI
7:33.84
| 2 | Zhanle Pan | CHN | 7:35.30 | 10/26 |
| 3 | Sven SCHWARZ | GER | 7:37.02 | 11/16 |
| 4 | Gabriele DETTI | ITA | 7:37.17 | 11/15 |
| 5 | Liu Peixin | CHN | 7:38.06 | 09/28 |
On his record-breaking performance, Luzin told the Russian Swimming Federation, “The feeling is great, words cannot even describe it, I am very happy. It feels like this is a different level.
“We had strong competition in the swim, Kirill Martynychev was leading for most of the distance. Partly, my result was due to him, he was a benchmark.
“Kirill also swam faster than the Russian record, he is a great guy. I have been swimming in a short pool since childhood, in my hometown there is a 25-meter pool. Therefore, I like short water more. Of course, swimming long distances in a 50-meter pool is a little harder.”
Something to keep in mind as we monitor these Russian SC Championships is the fact that World Aquatics recently released an updated list of athletes and support personnel from “nations in conflict” that have been approved to compete and attend sanctioned events as neutrals.
The global governing body recently approved new guidelines for athlete participation for nations in conflict, which currently includes Russia and Belarus.
KLIMENT KOLESNIKOV 47.11
NEVER FORHGET
Not sure I have a lot of faith in any of the times posted – would love to see a story on what (if any) level of drug testing the Russian swimmers have been undergoing since 2021.