Minakov Goes Lifetime-Best 22.5 Fly On Day 4 of Russian SC Champs, Shaves WJR

2020 RUSSIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Monday, December 14 – Saturday, December 19
• St. Petersburg, Russia
• SCM (25m)
• Prelims 9 AM / Finals 6 PM (Local Time)
• Meet Page
• Online Broadcast
• Live results

18-year-old Andrei Minakov chopped almost a half-second off of his career-best 50 fly, coming within a tenth of the world junior record benchmark.

Minakov went 22.54 to lead semifinals of the 50 short course meter butterfly. The 2002-born Minakov is eligible to break world junior records for just two more weeks, but he’ll have a prime opportunity in tomorrow night’s final. The world junior record in the boys short course 50 fly is technically held by no one. FINA only started tracking world junior records in short course in 2015. Instead of going back through historical rankings for previous swims, FINA created “world best/benchmark times.” Until an age-eligible swimmer betters the benchmark time, the record remains unoccupied.

All of that is to say that the boys 50 fly benchmark time is a 22.43. Minakov would need to drop 0.11 seconds to match the benchmark and take over the world junior record.

Minakov’s previous best time was a 2..98 from 2018, so his semifinals swim represented a sizable time drop.

A few other notable swims from day 4:

• Backstrokers have headlined this meet so far, and Evgeny Rylov continued to make backstroke a bright spot for the Russian men. He went 22.76 to win the 50 back, a tick faster than his 22.80 from yesterday’s semifinals. That swim should tie him for #2 in the nation this season. Ryan Murphy was 22.54 in the ISL, and Rylov moves into a tie for second with Coleman Stewart and Christian Diener.
• ISL standout Arina Surkova went 25.31 to win the 50 fly. That’s well off the national record of 24.87 she set last month in the ISL, but still won over this field by half a second.
• Anna Egorova followed up last night’s 800 free win with a dominating 4:00.95 win in the 400 free.
• Nika Godun was just a tick off her personal best time in semifinals of the 100 breast, going 1:04.99 to qualify first. Godun was 1:04.86 last year for the best swim of her career, and has a shot to better that tomorrow night.
• 18-year-old Aleksandr Shchegolev continued to be a young standout, with two key swims on day 4. He won the 100 IM in 52.28, then split 1:42.74 anchoring the winning 4×200 free relay for his St. Petersburg club.