The Russian Swimming Federation has announced that they will be sending both Anastasia Krapivina and Evgeny Drattsev to the Rio Olympic Games to compete in the 10 km open water event.
Krapivina qualified for Rio by finishing fifth at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan last summer. She also finished eighth in the 5 km distance in Kazan and was part of the Russian open water team that finished 10th. At the 2014 European Championships in Berlin, Germany Krapivina finished 11th in the 10 km and 13th in the 5 km
Drattsev qualified for Rio by finishing fourth at the Open Water Olympic Qualifier in Setubal, Portugal earlier this month. He did not swim the 10 km event at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, but finished fourth in the 5 km distance and eighth in the 25 km. Drattsev also had a strong showing in the 10 km distance at the 2014 European Championships collecting the bronze in the event adding to the silver he won in the 25 km distance.
At the last Olympic Games in London the Russians had three top ten finishes in the open water competition. In the men’s events Sergey Bolshakov finished sixth followed closely by Vladimir Dyatchin who finished seventh. In the women’s events Anna Guseva finished ninth.
