5 Swimmers To Watch, All Links For 2019 Russian Short Course Championships

2019 Short Course Russian Championships

• Tuesday, November 5 – Sunday, November 10, 2019
• Kazan, Russia
• Prelims 9 AM / Finals 6 PM (Local time)
• Live Stream
• Live Results

Russia’s short course national championships meet begins this week in Kazan, and we’ve got five key swimmers to watch.

Despite some major stars like Vladimir Morozov and Yulia Efimova not competing, many of Russia’s top talents will be in the mix in Kazan:

1. Maria Kameneva

20-year-old Maria Kameneva is in the mix for a pair of national records. She’s the top seed into the 100 IM, where she already holds the national mark at 58.89. Kameneva hit that time at last year’s Short Course Russian Champs in St. Petersburg. She’s the top seed by more than a second. Kameneva is also the top seed into the 50 free, though she’ll have to battle national record-holder Rosaliya Nasretdinova. Kameneva was 23.87 at Short Course Worlds last winter; Nasretdinova was 24.30, but the 22-year-old Nasretdinova went 23.64 at Russia’s 2017 Short Course Championships.

2. Kliment Kolesnikov

19-year-old sensation Kliment Kolesnikov is probably the biggest name competing in Kazan. He’s got a relatively light lineup, but could still challenge for two national records. The backstroke star is entered in the 50 back, where he holds the long course world record. Kolesnikov went 22.77 at Short Course Worlds last summer, just two tenths behind Evgeny Rylov, who set the national record at 22.58. Rylov is not competing in Kazan this week, opening the door for Kolesnikov to take over the record. He’s also entered in the 100 back (where he already holds the national and European records at 48.90), 200 back (where he’s still a ways off a supersuited Arkady Vyatchanin record) and the 100 IM (where he is four tenths away from a world record set by Vladimir Morozov was fall).

3. Anna Egorova

Anna Egorova, 21, is the runaway top seed in both women’s distance races. Her career-best 3:58.91 in the 400 free (set last fall) is just .01 off of Veronika Popova’s Russian record. Egorova also went an 800 free best (8:12.65) at Short Course Worlds last winter, and she’s only seven tenths off of a national record that has stood since 2006.

4. Evgeniia Chikunova

Evgeniia Chikunova was the breakout long course star last summer at age 14, winning a long course national title in the 200 breast. Chikunova turns 15 next week, and could be a candidate to extend her massive long course drops to the short course pool. Over the summer, Chikunova went from 33.4/1:12.2/2:32.2 in the long course 50/100/200 breaststrokes to 31.4/1:06.9/2:21.0. She comes into the meet with seed times of 31.8/1:07.9/2:23.6 with plenty of time to drop.

5. Aleksandr Krasnykh

For the men, 24-year-old Aleksandr Krasnykh is the top mid-distance threat. He leads seeds in the 400 free (3:36.84) and 200 free (1:42.26) with times from last fall’s Russian Championships, but his personal-bests actually come from the 2016 Short Course Worlds. Those times (1:41.95/3:35.30) would put him in the mix for national records, especially in the 400, where his career-best actually is the national mark.