In short water: Russian swimmers triumphantly returned to the international arena

Russian swimmers performed successfully at the World Short Course Championships in Budapest, the first major international tournament after a long break. Our athletes, competing in a neutral status, won six gold and four silver medals. By the number of first places, this is the second result after the U.S. team. The main hero of the national team was spinnist Miron Lifintsev. On his account are five gold medals: two individual and three in relay races. It is worth noting the victory of Ilya Borodin at the most difficult distance of 400 m swimming and the confident performance of Kirill Prigoda - the only one in this national team from the past generation, who retained both motivation and form.

To beat Kolesnikov

Just three weeks ago, young sprinter Miron Lifintsev failed to take a single individual medal at the National Short Course Championships in St. Petersburg, and now he is one of the main heroes of the World Short Course Championships in Budapest, having collected five gold medals. For those who follow swimming closely, though, this isn't a super sensation. At April's Russian Championships in the 50-meter pool, Miron beat one of the world's best swimmers - Kliment Kolesnikov - in the Olympic 100, thus declaring the seriousness of his intentions.

In Budapest, the Vyborg native won two individual races in the 50m and 100m backstroke. In the 100m backstroke, Lifintsev clocked 48.76 seconds, three hundredths ahead of local swimmer Hubert Kosch (48.79). At the same time, the 18-year-old athlete set a new world record among juniors, which previously belonged to Kolesnikov (48.9). Miron also set a similar record in the 50-meter dash, covering the distance in 22.47 seconds. He beat Australia's Isaac Cooper (22.65) in a hard-fought battle.

Lifintsev was also part of the gold team in two mixed combined relay races - 4 x 50 m and 4 x 100 meters. In the 100m, Lifintsev (backstroke), Kirill Prigoda (breaststroke), Arina Surkova (butterfly) and 19-year-old Daria Klepikova (freestyle) beat the Americans by 0.08. Another 19-year-old athlete, Darya Trofimova, kept Lifintsev, Prigoda and Surkova company in the 50-meter dash.

On the last day of the World Cup, Miron also took part in the victory of our men's four in the combined relay. Lifintsev, Prigoda, Andrey Minakov and Egor Kornev did it with a new world record of 3 minutes 18.68 seconds. The second place went to the Americans, and the swimmers from Italy were third.

- I really liked the performance of our athletes in Budapest," Sergey Fesikov, Olympic medalist and winner of the World Short Course World Championships, told Izvestia. - The last relay with a world record is a fat point. In any case, we secured this final swim and showed that we have a great future ahead of us. Yes, it's not an easy World Championships, we saw a lot of world records from athletes from other countries. This is expected because it is the first tournament of this rank after the Olympic Games. American athletes showed great seconds, but we have a lot to aspire to, we have our own legends who won five gold medals. Very happy for Miron Lifintsev and for the team events in which we performed.

Alas, it was not possible to find out about the emotions of our athletes after their victorious swims. The ban on interviews was prescribed in the rules for neutral athletes. Also, the official website of the All-Russian Swimming Federation could not give news about the Russians' successes at the World Championships in Budapest. Absurd, but it is better to perform like this than to watch the records of colleagues on TV.

Borodin's long-awaited triumph

Ilya Borodin, 21, became another of our athletes who climbed to the top step of the podium. The Bryansk swimmer went to the tournament in Budapest in the status of a favorite - at the Russian Championships he showed a time of 3 minutes 57.67 seconds on his crowning distance (400 m complex swimming), which gave reason to think not only about the victory, but also about the world record (Japanese Daiya Seto - 3 minutes 54.81 seconds, 2019).

Borodin has a very dramatic career - he didn't make it to the Olympics in Japan, having tested positive for covid just a day before departure. And then he didn't compete internationally for another three years due to an international ban.

And his return was triumphant. Borodin easily made it to the final - from the second place, showing a result of 4 minutes 1.28 seconds. American Carson Foster imposed strong competition on the Russian in the final heat. Ilya managed to get half a pace away from him only in the middle of the race, and the last meters were tense. However, the Russian managed to keep the lead and won the gold medal with a time of 3 minutes 56.83 seconds. It's a long way from the world record, but a win is a win. It was Ilya's first career gold medal at the World Championships. Three years ago Borodin won silver at the World Short Course World Championships in Abu Dhabi.

Kirill Prigoda was also close to gold in the individual event. In the 100-meter breaststroke, the 28-year-old Russian was only 0.02 short of the first place, which was taken by Qin Haiyan of China. Interestingly, in the semifinal between the athletes had the same time, but Prigoda was higher in the standings.

Prigoda was also second in the final heats of two more of his distances: 50m (again losing only to Qin Haiyan) and 200m breaststroke (he was beaten by Spaniard Carles Col Marti by 33 hundredths).

Silver start from Chikunova

Evgenia Chikunova, perhaps the main star of our swimming in recent years, failed to perform to her strength. The world record holder leaves the Hungarian capital with a silver medal in the 200m and fifth place in the hundred. However, it should be noted that the Russian is not in the best shape now, and she has never specialized in short water. The main thing is that our star got a neutral status and returned to international starts.

The main start next year will be the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore from July 11 to August 3. All or almost all the strongest will gather there. And Evgeniya will surely approach it in optimal form.

But it will be very difficult for our even more titled swimmer Yulia Efimova to qualify for Singapore. The youth is pushing the three-time Olympic medalist. Yefimova was beaten by 17-year-old Ralina Gilyazova at the Russian 50m Championships (she didn't make it to Hungary). But Darya Klepikova and Darya Trofimova, both 19, not only made it, but also took gold in the relays.

Egor Kornev, a 20-year-old rabbi, who, incidentally, trains in the same group as Lifintsev, also showed great results in Budapest. And, for example, Milana Stepanova reached the final of the 200 backstroke at her first international start. And this at the age of 15.

At the same time, we should not forget that the current World Championships are held not in the Olympic pool, but on the 25-meter track (which greatly corrects the sporting arrangements). Besides, the main start of the current season was the Olympics, which took place in July-August, and few of the leaders were betting on Budapest-2024. On the other hand, our swimmers did not know two months ago that they would be admitted to the current tournament, and in many respects they also performed impromptu. And in general - a victory is a victory, it is foolish to downplay its significance.