Surkova Hits New Russian 50 Fly Record, Prigoda Clocks World’s #1 200 Breast

2023 RUSSIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• November 20th – November 25th
• St. Petersburg, Russia
• SCM (25m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Results

We entered the third day of competition at the 2023 Russian Short Course Championships and 25-year-old Arina Surkova wasted no time staking her claim on the women’s 50m fly event.

Competing in this evening’s semi-final, Surkova put up a time of 24.58 to lead the field, establishing a new Russian national record in the process. Her outing here in St. Petersburg overwrote her own previous Russian standard of 24.84 logged 3 years ago.

Surkova now easily takes over the world’s #1 ranking on the season, registering the sole sub-25-second result on the planet thus far.

Last night’s winner in the women’s 100m back, Maria Kameneva, doubled up with a gold in the 100m freestyle this evening.

24-year-old Kameneva produced a mark of 52.22, with a 25.28 opening and 26.94 closing. Her gold medal-worthy time represents the 4th-fastest outing of her career and renders the Russian #2 in the world this season.

Andrei Minakov led the men’s 100 fly out of the heats but was denied the gold by Roman Shevlyakov.

Shevlyakov stopped the clock in 49.78 to get to the wall a fingernail ahead of Minakov who settled for silver in 49.84. Pavel Samusenko rounded out the top 3 in 50.10.

Entering this competition, Shevlyakov had never before been under the 50-second barrier, owning a lifetime best of 50.07 from last year. He now ranks #4 in the world this season.

Kirill Prigoda got it done for gold in the men’s 200m breast, firing off a time of 2:02.56. That relegated Danil Semyaninov to 2nd place in 2:02.80 while Mikhail Dorinov also landed on the podium in 2:03.11 for bronze.

Prigoda’s personal best remains at the 2:00.16 he produced for gold at the 2018 Short Course World Championships, although tonight’s entire Russian podium now ranks #1, #2 and #2 in the season’s world rankings.

Additional Notes

• Anna Egorova got it done for gold in the women’s 800m free, stopping the clock in a time of 8:18.43. That got her to the wall nearly 3 seconds ahead of the competition and checks in among the top 10 performances of her career.
• The women’s 100m IM saw Yana Shakirova produce a mark of 1:00.24 to take the pole position for tomorrow night’s main event.
• The men’s 50m free is shaping up to be a brutal fight to the wall with the top 6 competitors separated by just .32. Egor Kornev was the quickest in 21.34 but Daniil Markov is right behind in 21.57. Last night’s 4th place finisher in the 100m back Evgeny Rylov is in the mix with a 3rd-seeded 21.63 while Alexander Borovtsov (21.64), Dmitry Zhavoronkov (21.65) and Mikhail Vekovishchev (21.65) are also in contending positions.
• Anastasia Duplinskaya topped the podium in the women’s 200m back, scoring the sole result of the field under 2:08 in 2:07.19.
• Following up his 100m backstroke victory last night, Kliment Kolesnikov ripped a time of 22.64 to land lane 4 for tomorrow night’s final of the men’s 50m back. Kolesnikov owns the Russian national record in 22.11 so he’s well on his way to getting in that range with a performance that renders him #1 in the world this season. K2 also topped the semi-final of the men’s 100m IM, registering 52.83.