2026 EUROPEAN JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 7 – Sunday, July 12, 2026
- Munich, Germany
- LCM (50 meters)
- Psych Sheet
- Live Results
After clearing the World Junior Record in the 400 free relay in prelims, the Neutral Athletes from Russia found another gear in finals and erupted for a record-smashing 3:12.75 in finals on Tuesday in Munich.
The relay made only one change from prelims, subbing in 16-year-old Bogdan Toropkin on the leadoff leg, and managed to find almost two full seconds off their record from prelims. In total, they dropped 2.63 seconds from Russia’s own World Junior Record set at last year’s World Junior Championships.
Joining Toropkin in finals (16) were Egor Proshin (18*), Matvei Miliaev (17), and Mikhail Shcherbakov (18). Toropkin took the spot of Matvei Chekalev, who led off the prelims relay.
Splits Comparison
| Finals Record | Splits | Prelims Record | Splits | Old Record | Split |
| Bogdan Toropkin | 49.21 | Matvei Chekalev | 49.65 | Mikhail Shcherbakov | 49.13 |
| Egor Proshin | 47.58 | Egor Proshin | 48.11 | Roman Zhidkov | 48.37 |
| Matvei Miliaev | 48.36 | Matvei Miliaev | 48.69 | Egor Proshin | 48.98 |
| Mikhail Shcherbakov | 47.60 | Mikhail Shcherbakov | 48.27 | Georgii Zlotnikov | 48.90 |
| 3:12.75 | 3:14.72 | 3:15.38 |
Proshin and Shcherbakov, the two holdovers from last year’s relay, were the heroes, both splitting 47-mids.
The time is faster by .13 seconds than the Russian prelims relay that missed finals at last year’s senior World Championships, swimming 3:12.87. Both Schherbakov and Proshin’s splits would have been the fastest on that prelims relay, giving Russia renewed depth to build toward the top of the world in the men’s 400 free relay – where they used to be regular medal contenders.
That was the Neutral Athletes’ only gold medal on day 1 of the meet. Viktoriia Blinova took individual bronze in the 400 IM and the girls’ 400 free relay added a bronze medal as well.
Russia is in their second year of racing as Neutral Athletes at the European Junior Championships after three years of banishment from the meet over their invasion of Ukraine.
Past records set by Russia during their partial suspension have been labeled as “Russia” if done at a domestic meet or “Neutral Athletes” if done at a meet where the team was competing as Neutral Athletes, as was the case with last year’s World Junior Championships. World Aquatics, like many governing bodies, have recently softened their stance toward Russia, though, so it is unclear how this record might be approached.
Very proud of this very legitimate record!
If you add Kornev and Girev they can even go 3:09. And they still have Kolesnikov and Minakov. Insane depth
Russia and USA will be fighting for that relay gold in LA 2028
So Kornev replacing Toropkin on that relay and you have 3:10.4 or so. Wow.