2018 Euros: Russian Men To Slug It Out In 100 Back Prelims On Day 3

2018 LEN EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• August 3-9, 2018 (swimming portion)
• Glasgow, Scotland
• Tollcross International Swimming Centre
• Meet Central
• Program
• Psych Sheet
• Live Results
• Live Stream
• Live Stream (Europe w/ English commentary)

Similar to what we saw from the Hungarian men on day 2 in the preliminaries of the 200 fly, the Russians will go at it in the heats of the 100 back on day 3 with only two available spots in the semi-finals.

The Hungarians placed four men in the top five of the prelims, but Bence Biczo and Laszlo Cseh were denied a spot in the semis as Kristof Milak and Tamas Kenderesi put up the top two times.

In the 100 back, Russians Evgeny Rylov, Kliment Kolesnikov and Grigory Tarasevich come in as the top-3 seeds overall, and Nikita Ulyanov is no slouch either with the 7th fastest seed time. Rylov is the top seed, and Kolesnikov is coming off a world record performance in the 50 back, so they’re certainly the favorites, but they’ll need to be sharp in the morning in order to ensure they advance. Tarasevich and Ulyanov have both been 53-mid this year.

We saw a similar situation happen with the Russians in the 100 free, where Vlad Morozov came in as the fastest man in the world this year but was denied a spot in the semi-finals as he was the 3rd fastest Russian in the prelims.

Also on the docket for day 3 prelims will be the men’s 200 IM, women’s 200 fly, women’s 200 free, men’s 200 breast, and the men’s 4×200 free relay.

Some notable swimmers in action include Great Britain’s Max Litchfield in the 200 IM, who is coming off an injury that forced him out of the Commonwealth Games, his fellow Brit Alys Thomas in the 200 fly who pulled off a surprising gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, and France’s Charlotte Bonnet in the 200 free after she scorched a 52.20 relay leg in the 4×100 free.

And then there’s the 200 breast, where James Wilby is coming in hot after becoming the 3rd fastest performer in history in his second-best event (winning silver in the 100 breast). Anton Chupkov, the reigning 200 world champion, also had his fastest ever swim in the 100, winning bronze in a Russian Record of 58.96.