2022 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (SCM)
- November 20-25, 2022
- Kazan, Russia
- Short Course Meters (25 meters), prelims/finals + semi-finals for 50 & 100 meter races.
- Results
Jovan Lekic, who returned to racing earlier this year after having a doping suspension reduced from two years to six months, set a pair of Bosnia & Herzegovina Records this week at the Russian Championships.
The 19-year-old swam 3:48.83 to finish 12th in prelims of the 400 free and 7:54.16 to finish 13th in prelims of the 800 free. While neither swim advanced to the finals, both swims broke National Records.
In the 400 free, he broke a 2014 record set by Ensar Hajder at that year’s World Championships at 3:49.08. In the 800, he clipped his own 8:03.55 swum at the Mladost Meet in November 2020, which was the split en route to his national record-setting 15:05.66 in the 1500.
Lekic took half-a-second off his own personal best from October’s FINA World Cup meet in Berlin to break the record in the 400. His drop came with a very different pacing:
| Jovan Lekic | Jovan Lekic | |
| Oct 2022 PB |
November 2022 National Record
|
|
| 100m | 55.27 | 55.40 |
| 200m | 58.52 | 58.62 |
| 300m | 58.38 | 58.96 |
| 400m | 57.17 | 55.85 |
| Final Time | 3:49.34 | 3:48.83 |
His closing 100 split of 55.85 was 1.3 seconds better than in his previous personal best, though he backed way-off on the first three legs of the race. In fact, his closing 100 meter split was faster than anybody outside of the top 8, and his last 25 meters were third-best of the field.
In 2021, Lekic won a silver medal in the 400 free and a bronze medal in the 200 free at the European Junior Championships in long course. He was later given a two-year doping suspension for a positive test at a final preparation meet before the European Junior Championships.
The B&H Anti-Doping Control Agency originally gave him a two year suspension, but upon appeal, he convinced the Court of Arbitration for Sport that the positive test was the result of a tainted supplement. That suspension eventually was reduced by CAS to six months, allowing Lekic to return to competition in October of this year.
Lekic was his country’s first-ever medalist at the European Junior Championships before his suspension. That honor now belongs to his countrymate Lana Pudar, who would medal later in the meet.
