Minakov Coasts To 100 Fly Russian Title in 51.3, Hits 47.7 Free Relay Split

2020 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2020 Russian Swimming Championships continued with Stanford commit Andrei Minakov doing his thing in the men’s 100m fly.

After posting the top-seeded mark of 51.70 in last night’s semi-final to claim lane 4, tonight the 18-year-old brought home the gold in a result of 51.37. Splitting 23.71/27.66, Minakov finished .3 ahead of runner-up Egor Kuimov who touched in 51.67 for silver, as well as Oleg Kostin who rounded out the top 3 in 51.95.

For Minakov, his time here of 51.37 was a solid outing for this time of this peculiar year which has seen post-coronavirus pandemic closures and training shake-ups. As a perspective, Minakov became the 2019 World Championship silver medalist in this 100m fly event with a new national record of 50.83 in Gwangju.

Minakov was back in the water for the mixed freestyle relay, helping his St. Petersburg squad take gold with a 2nd leg split of 47.72 (23.57/24.15). In Gwangju last year, Minakov posted a split of 48.94 in the prelims of the men’s 400 free relay.

In the other finals this evening, Arina Openysheva claimed victory in the women’s 100m free, clocking one of three sub-55 second outings of the field. Openysheva led the way with a time of 54.67, a mark just .22 outside her PB of 54.45 from way back in 2015 when she took silver at that year’s European Games.

Behind Openysheva was Elizaveta Klevanovich with a mark of 54.78, while Ekaterina Ekanova scored bronze in 54.88. The women needed at least a time of 54.38 in order to meet the FINA ‘A’ qualifying time for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo next year.

Anastasia Klyarovskaya put up a time of 2:11.81 to win the women’s 200m back by over 3 seconds, while Alexander Egorov was just over the Olympic qualifying cut in the men’s 800m free. His time of 7:54.63 missed the mark for Tokyo by just .32.

Additional Notes:

  • Daria Talanova leads the women’s semi-final of the 50m fly with a tie of 26.59, while Daria Vaskina is wright behind in 2.60.
  • The men’s 50m free semi-final saw Ivan Kuzmenko lead the charge in a swim of 22.27.
  • 15-year-old Evgenia Chikunova was swift in the women’s 100 breast, taking the top seed for tomorrow night’s final in a mark of 1:06.97, just .04 outside of her lifetime best.
  • Last night’s 100m free champion Grigory Tarasevich is the man to beat in tomorrow night’s 50m back final, with the former Louisville Cardinal posting the only sub-25 second time of the semi in 24.83.

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Igma
3 years ago

Next day he swum the final of 100 free: 47.57 (22.84-24.73)

ArtVanDeLegh10
3 years ago

I have a hard time believing 24.1 is accurate.

Corn Pop
Reply to  ArtVanDeLegh10
3 years ago

That or his year of endurance training is w working! In the end the splits don’t matter – just time at the wall correct .

Daniel Jablonski
3 years ago

That relay split is… kind of insane.

Skoorbnagol
3 years ago

24.15 backend split?
Fastest ever 2nd 50 split is that correct
Deserve an article on its own if it is!!

Joe
Reply to  Skoorbnagol
3 years ago

Could well be.

Phelps was 24.20 in the 2008 Olympics. Chalmers was 24.29 in 2019, Duncan Scott was 24.32 in that relay split. Can’t think of anyone else who might’ve been quicker.

Joe
Reply to  Joe
3 years ago

Some more tidbits for those interested.

PVDH was 24.39 in the 2008 Olympic semi-finals, which is as far as I can see his fastest back half split. Lezak was 24.55 when he dropped 46.06, and that was only the 3rd fastest split in that race — behind Phelps and Leveaux, who went 24.52.

PVSFree
Reply to  Joe
3 years ago

Geez I did not realize Lezak was out in a 21.5 in that split, I assumed his back half was just faster because he closed so well compared to the French

Aussieone
Reply to  Joe
3 years ago

You should know 😁

Waader
Reply to  Skoorbnagol
3 years ago

Yeah honestly it makes waaay more sense if they messed up and he opened a second faster. 23.5 is pretty slow. Otherwise he basically went 24.05-24.15 (without relay start).

Swimswammer
Reply to  Skoorbnagol
3 years ago

Even more intense is the fact that he did it 20-30 min after the 100 fly

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Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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