2020 BELARUSIAN SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS
- December 17-19, 2020
- Brest, Belarus
- SCM (25m)
- Live Results
Five swimmers reset national records on day two of the 2020 Belarusian Short Course Championships, along with several other performances that neared the country’s all-time fastest mark.
Highlighting the action was 26-year-old Ilya Shymanovich, who followed up his national record in the men’s 200 breaststroke on day one by registering the third-fastest 50 breast swim of all-time on day two, hitting a 25.39 in the prelims. Shymanovich would follow up by winning the event in 25.41.
17-year-old Anastasiya Shkurdai, who won both the women’s 100 free and 50 back on Thursday, broke the Belarusian Record in the women’s 200 back in both prelims and finals. In the heats, Shkurdai clocked a time of 2:05.99 to get way under her 2017 mark of 2:08.40, and then brought the time all the way down to 2:04.80 in the final. You can read more about those swims here.
At the end of the finals session, Shkurdai came dangerously close to a third record on the day, leading off Brest Region’s 200 free relay in a scintillating time of 23.69. That swim falls just .05 shy of Aliaksandra Herasimenia‘s national record of 23.64, set in 2012, and also destroys Shkurdai’s previous best time of 24.13, done just last month during the ISL season.
Joining Shymanovich and Shkurdai with a national record in the prelims was Alina Zmushka, who was coming off of breaking the 200 breast record twice on day one. The 23-year-old hit a time of 29.65 to erase her 29.69 from the 2019 SC Euros in Glasgow. She would go on to comfortably win the final in 30.05.
Also setting new national records on the day was Ruslan Skamoroshka and Yauhen Tsurkin.
Skomoroshka did so in the men’s 200 freestyle, putting up a time of 1:45.17 to erase the previous mark of 1:45.46 set by Viktar Krasochka in 2017. Skamoroshka, 23, came into the meet with a best of 1:48.75. Krasochka took second in 1:46.94.
Tsurkin, 30, reset the national record in the 50 free, leading off Gomel Region’s 200 free relay in 21.46 to break Artyom Machekin‘s 2019 record of 21.51. Grigori Pekarski wasn’t far off on his opening leg for Mogilev Region in 21.57.
Two more Belarusian Records almost went down in the distance freestyle events, as Alesia Akinchyts clocked 16:41.49 in the women’s 1500 to fall just shy of the 16:40.60 mark, and Konstantin Kurochkin swam to a 7:55.98 in the men’s 800 free to come just over two and a half seconds off the 7:53.66 record.
OTHER EVENTS
- Pekarski won the men’s 100 butterfly in 50.16, narrowly missing Tsurkin’s national record of 49.99 from 2014. Tsurkin was the runner-up in 50.47.
- Following her 100 IM win on day one, Anastasia Kuleshova picked up a second victory in the women’s 100 fly (58.27).
- Also earning a second win for the meet was Viktar Staselovich, who topped the men’s 200 back field in 1:53.76 after winning the 50 on Thursday. Staselovich came into the meet with a PB of 1:56.30.
- 14-year-old Victoria Zamostik won the women’s 200 free in 2:03.25, edging Anna Severin (2:03.34).
- Both 400 IM events were nail-biters as well, with Yeva Andrasiuk (4:49.68) prevailing over Anastasiya Vaskevich (4:50.15) in the women’s event, and Artsion Paludo (4:20.69) winning the men’s race over Yauheni Busau (4:20.73).