Vyatchanin Breaks Two Records for New Nation at 2015 Serbia Open

Arkady Vyatchanin, the two-time Olympic medalist and world record holder who represented his native Russian for most of his career, swam as a member of Serbian Club Proleter at the 2015 edition of the Serbia Open this past weekend.

Swimming for Club Proleter seems to have served Vyatchanin well thus far, as the 30-year-old backstroke specialist broke his first national records in Novi Sad.  Vyatchanin is now the Serbian national record holder in the 50m backstroke, with his 26.19 having surpassed the 10-year-old national record of 26.76 set by Igor Beretic in July of 2005.  He then also scored a new national mark in the 100m backstroke as lead-off on the 4 x 100 medley relay, touching in 56.04.

Vyatchanin’s 50 back victory marked his third individual win of this weekend’s competition, having also won the 100 butterfly in 55.73, the 200 backstroke in 2:03.48.  Vyatchanin also earned second place in the 50m butterfly (24.89) and would have won the 100 backstroke contest in a time of 56.88, but was deemed disqualified for touching the wall completely underwater at the finish.

Since a falling out with the Russian swimming federation back in 2013, Vyatchanin had been seeking out a new home country and, after exploring several options, landed on Serbia as the federation he would represent throughout competitions on his journey to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Vyatchanin hopes to have word from FINA soon as to when his first competition representing Serbia internationally will be. “I will officially represent Serbia when FINA says I can officially represent them”, Vyatchanin told SwimSwam.

Full Meet Results Here