Unearthly waters: how the first day of the World Swimming Championships went with the participation of Russians

The World Short Course Swimming Championships have started in Budapest (Hungary), in which 28 of our athletes are taking part. The competition will last until December 15, and soon we will see almost all the leaders of the Russian national team in action: six-time world champion Yulia Efimova, world record holder Evgenia Chikunova, World Cup medalist Kirill Prigoda. On the first day Russian swimmers, who are competing at the tournament in a neutral status, were left without medals. Our best result - fourth places (as they say in such cases, the most offensive - wooden medals) in the women's and men's 4 by 100 m freestyle relay. Even Andrei Minakov didn't help.

Three made it to the final

The evening program began with the 400m freestyle swim, in which 16-year-old Sofya Dyakova took part. She became the first Russian to compete in the finals of the World Swimming Championships since December 2021 (the last time our swimmers participated in the world championships). Sofya set a Russian junior record, but took eighth place. Her gap to the winner Summer McIntosh was more than 12 seconds. The Canadian set a new world record with a time of 3.50.25.

- I would like to mention Sofia Dyakova," 2016 World Cup medalist Daria Mullakaeva told Izvestia. - Her first World Cup and immediately the first final. I watched how she swam in the morning, gave out the maximum right away, straight up good girl. Women's swimming in the world is weaker than men's swimming. We have to give our best at once, we can't get too comfortable or relax. And well done for not being afraid to start right away and it allowed her to reach the final.

Next up is the 50m butterfly semifinal. Russian swimmer Arina Surkova finished second with a time of 24.71 seconds and qualified for the final with a fourth overall time. The best time was shown by the representative of the USA Gretchen Walsh, who set a world record (23.94). Moreover, she surpassed her own achievement set today in the preliminary heat (24.02).

Then the men went into action. Also semi-final at a distance of 50 m butterfly. Our guys did not please here: Oleg Kostin was sixth in the first heat (22.26 sec.), and Roman Shevlyakov (22.22) finished seventh in the second semifinal. They did not advance to the decisive stage. And Swiss Noe Ponti made a real sensation. He set a world record (21.43), beating his own previous record (21.50).

The Russian girls did not take part in the final 200m medley. Olympic champion Kate Douglas was the soloist there. The American took the first line with a world record (2.01.63).

In the men's event, American Shane Casas won (1.49.51). Russian swimmer Ilya Borodin finished sixth (1.52.87).

Our girls did not compete in the 100m backstroke semifinals, while in the men's 100m backstroke Miron Lifintsev and Pavel Samusenko accomplished the minimum task of making it to the final. Lifintsev overcame the distance in 49.07 with the second result, Samusenko (49.88) - with the fifth time.

Then Kirill Martynychev came to the water. In the final 1500m freestyle he was in the lead group for a long time, but he dropped off a bit towards the end and was only seventh. Ahmed Jaouadi of Tunisia won the gold medal (14.16.40).

Passing conditions: admission of Russians to foreign starts becomes easier

Despite a number of positive news, it is still too early to talk about a turning point in the situation with the performance of our athletes in the international arena

Just a little bit short

The day ended with the women's and men's 4 x 100m freestyle relays. And in these disciplines our guys were considered real medal contenders. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. We lacked just a little bit.

Daria Klepikova, Daria Trofimova, Milana Stepanova and Arina Surkova swam for the women's national team. Our quartet took the fourth place, losing only 0.29 sec. in the fight for bronze. The winners of the women's relay were the Americans (3.25.01) with a world record. The Australians took the silver and the Canadians the bronze.

In the men's relay, the situation was about the same. The Russian team (Egor Kornev, Dmitry Zhavoronkov, Alexander Shchegolev, three-time World Cup-2019 medalist Andrei Minakov) took fourth place in the final, losing 0.16 seconds to bronze medalists from Poland. Second place went to Italy, and the Americans took the throne here as well. Their result of 3.01.66 is another new world record.

- We didn't win any medals on Tuesday, December 10, but we were very close to the podium in the relays," Dmitry Guberniev, a well-known sports commentator, told Izvestia. - I expect our guys to fight for gold as much as possible in the remaining five days. And those people who told Chikunova and the others that they shouldn't go to the Olympics to grow horns on their heads. Because that's no way to treat athletes! Athletes will perform, and those who hindered them, let the horned ones go and eat nettles and swan by the fences.

On the second day of the World Cup 10 more sets of medals will be played.