2020 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, October 25th – Friday, October 30th
• Aquatics Palace, Kazan, Russia
• LCM (50m)
• Olympic-qualifying competition
• SwimSwam Preview
• Entries/Results

World Record holder Anton Chupkov was in the water on day 1 of the 2020 Russian Championships, contesting the prelim and semifinal of the 100m breaststroke.

Chupkov earned the top seed in both the morning and the afternoon, posting times of 59.31 and 59.10 to skate through to tomorrow night’s final. The man owns a lifetime best and national record in a mark of 58.94, so we’ll see if he can break through the 59-second barrier come tomorrow night’s final.

Joining him in tomorrow night’s final is 15-year-old Evgenia Chikunova, the breaststroking prodigy who has been making waves the past couple of years, culminating in two 2019 World Junior Championships titles in the 100m and breaststroke. Chikunova turns 16 on November 17th.

Tonight, Chikunova took the top seed by a mile in the women’s 50m breaststroke, clocking a new personal best of 30.81. That time decimates her own previous career-quickest of 31.18 from last year, as well as overtakes the Russian Junior Record of 31.00 set by Olympian Yuliya Efimova way back in 2008.

Of note, Efimova was not able to compete at these championships due to travel restrictions.

St. Petersburg won the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, which meant that Stanford commit Andrei Minakov was in the water. The teen clocked a time of 48.30 to anchor the relay which took gold in a time of 3:16.62.

For Minakov, his individual best-ever 100m freestyle time rests at the 48.50 he produced en route to finishing in 4th place at the 2019 Russian Championships.

Vladislav Grinev posted the quickest split of the field with a 48.18 anchor on runners-up Moscow.

Additional Notes:

• Alexander Egorov nailed the top time in the men’s 400m free of 3:47.50 but fell short of the Olympic QT of 3:46.78.
• Former Louisville Cardinal Grigory Tarasevich is the man to beat after the 100m back semi-final, carrying the top-seeded time of 54.11.
• The women’s 100m back saw Daria Vaskina reap the pole position with her semi-final time of 1:00.52.