Star standard: almost all Russian swimming leaders qualified for the World Cup

The Russian Swimming Championship in the 25m pool ended in St. Petersburg: 900 athletes won 48 medals. But most importantly, the starts gave our athletes an opportunity to qualify for the World Championships, which will be held from December 10 to 15 in the capital of Hungary. The athletes themselves found out about it shortly before going out on the track, but they showed very decent results: several Russian records and two best results of the season in the world.

28 names

On the first day of the competition Dmitry Mazepin, the new president of the United Federation of Aquatic Sports of Russia, announced happy news for our swimmers.

- This start is a qualifying event for the World Championships in Budapest. I believe that the lull on the world stage, which we have had for the last year, should be interrupted by our loud victories. So I wish you beautiful starts and new personal records! - welcomed the participants Dmitry Arkadyevich.

As a result, 28 athletes met the standard, including the main stars of Russian swimming - six-time world champion Yulia Efimova, world record holder Evgenia Chikunova, World Cup medalist Kirill Prigoda. Another World Cup medalist Andrei Minakov did it at the World Cup stage in South Korea.

Also within the World Cup norms were: Roman Akimov, Elizaveta Agapitova, Victoria Blinova, Ilya Borodin, Alina Gaifutdinova, Sofia Diakova, Dmitry Zhavoronkov, Alexander Zhigalov, Daria Klepikova, Oleg Kostin, Egor Kornev, Saveliy Luzin, Myron Lifintsev, Kirill Martynychev, Ksenia Misharina, Dmitry Savenko, Pavel Samusenko, Milana Stepanova, Alexey Sudarev, Arina Surkova, Daria Trofimova, Alexey Tkachev, Roman Shevlyakov, Alexander Shchegolev.

At the same time neutral status have only a few of this list, but because of the relaxations World Aquatics may well get it in the next two weeks. First of all, the international federation removed from the documents on neutral status mentions of specific countries, because the previous document looked like a blatant infringement of the rights of athletes on the "color of the passport". Determine the list of "countries in conflict", representatives of which should receive neutral status, will be eight members of the executive committee and 40 members of the bureau of World Aquatics. There is no doubt that Russia and Belarus will fall into this category. But whether Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Sudan and other countries currently involved in armed confrontations will join this list is an interesting question. The very fact that sports officials have arrogated to themselves the right to assess complex geopolitical processes, to put it mildly, does not fit in with the usual mission of sport.

An important point is that the new document does not apply to water polo. In it, Russia and Belarus remain under a complete ban, which in principle corresponds to the IOC recommendations for team sports.

In the new rules remained unchanged the ban on the flag and anthem, the ban on athletes associated with the armed forces, the ban on athletes, coaches and support staff "supporting any type of political conflict or war", as well as a ban on communication with the media and international competitions. An independent tribunal, the Aquatics Integrity Unit (the same one that adjudicates doping cases) will be in charge of issuing neutral statuses, and its refusal can theoretically be challenged in CAS. There is little chance of getting to the truth here, but the prospect of further disputes will keep the judges from quite scandalous decisions.

Records of Luzin and Prigoda

The main intrigue of the World Championships was whether Yulia Efimova would be able to fulfill the standard in 100m and 200m breaststroke (before the start she admitted that she was not ready for the fact that St. Petersburg would be the venue for the selection). And if in the 100m our most titled swimmer was able to fulfill the standard "A" for selection to the World Cup with the accuracy of a hundredth of a second (1:05.28), then in the 200m breaststroke she fulfilled the standard "A" with reserve.

- I blur," Efimova admitted in an interview with Match TV. - And everyone knows it perfectly well. It's a pity that I didn't manage to go to the World Cup stages. I would have been in a different shape here. You can really see it in the course of the competitions - despite the load I have, that I haven't had any training. And still I'm blurring. So I can still do it.

The first in both heats (100m and 200m) and the 50m (Efimova was third here) was expectedly Evgenia Chikunova, who finally decided to get neutral status. It has been clear for several years that the 20-year-old world vice-champion is the strongest in domestic starts.

- I think it's not a bad skill - to focus only on yourself," Chikunova told Izvestia. - Swim based on your strength, your feelings. That's why I train with the idea that I have to fight only with myself, with my records.

Kirill Prigoda showed an important result in the men's 100m breaststroke. He updated his Russian record set in 2017. The Russian champion improved his own best time by 0.07 seconds (56.02 vs. 55.95) and became only the 10th person in history to swim the distance faster than 56 seconds. However, Kirill was only second in the race, behind record holder and world champion Ilya Shimanovich from Belarus. Oleg Kostin became the silver medalist of the Russian Championship, and Ivan Kozhakin took bronze.

Another record was set in the 800m freestyle. Two swimmers finished faster than Alexander Stepanov's record time. Saveliy Luzin became the champion and record holder of Russia, finishing in 7:33.97, Kirill Martynychev was second with 7:34.21 and Ivan Morgun took bronze.

- This is the first adult record, before that there were two junior records at 400m and 800m," said Saveliy Luzin. - It feels great, words can't even describe it, I'm very happy. It feels that this is already another level. In the swim we had strong competition, Kirill Martynychev was leading most of the distance. Partly my result was thanks to him, he was a reference point. Kirill also swam faster than the Russian record, he did well. I've been swimming in a short pool since childhood, my hometown has a 25-meter pool. That's why I like short water better. In a 50-meter pool to swim long distances, of course, a little bit harder.

Bypassed Marchand

The best result of the season in the world in the men's 100m backstroke was also shown in the Northern Capital. Kliment Kolesnikov, a two-time medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, did it. The reigning European record holder at this distance showed an outstanding 49.29. Miron Lifintsev and Pavel Samusenko were second and third respectively.

- I don't emphasize on any particular distance, I swim for myself, and whatever works best," Kolesnikov admitted.

On the fourth day of the World Cup Kliment also won a gold medal in the 100 m complex, and the second gold medal of the evening was won in the 50 m backstroke. At the same time, Kolesnikov is not going to Budapest. Head coach of the Russian national team Sergey Chepik explained it by the fact that the titled athlete is experiencing problems with the brush of his right hand.

Ilya Borodin also showed the best result of the season in the world. The 21-year-old native of Bryansk overcame the 400 m complex distance in 3 min. 57.67 seconds. By this indicator Borodin surpassed the winner of the Olympic Games in Paris Leon Marchand, who at the World Cup stage in October showed the result of 3 min. 58.30 sec. It should be noted that Ilya is the winner of the European Championships 2021 at the distance of 400 m complex swimming. At the World Short Course Championships in 2021 at the same distance he won silver.

Darya Klepikova became the winner of the "royal" freestyle hundred meters, Darya Trofimova took silver, and Yana Shakirova closed the top three.