Kazan, Russia, November 10, 2014 – Night three of the Russian Nationals yet again saw swimmers make some moves within the World’s Top Ten Rankings for short course meters times. Although no one unseated a number-one-ranked-swimmer, there were plenty of solid swims now with just two more nights of the meet left.
The first event of the night was the women’s final 4 x 50m medley relay, where Moscow earned first place by almost two seconds over the rest of the field (Moscow’s time: 1:48.45). The Moscow women would also later win the women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay final in a time of 3:37.64.
No one cracked the top ten world rankings in the women’s 100m freestyle race, but a swift time of 53.04 did get Veronika Popova to the wall first. As for the men’s 200m backstroke final, Daria Ustinova won the event in a time of 2:05.29, almost a second ahead of the rest of the field, but still not fast enough to cause any shake-ups in the world rankings.
In the women’s 100m IM final, no swimmer was able to break the 1:00 mark; the closest was first-place finisher, Vitalina Simonova with her time of 1:00.05. The women’s 400m free was also a tad lackluster, with the fastest swimmer, Veronika Popova, swimming just 4:03.42 to earn the top spot of the final.
The men’s 200m breaststroke final, however, did provide some fireworks, as Oleg Kostin’s first place time of 2:03.04 now ranks him third in the world in this event. Cyril Prigoda’s swift 2:04.76 moved him into ninth in the world, while third place finisher, Mickhail Dorinov’s time of 2:04.82 now occupies the number ten spot in the world rankings in this event.
The men’s 50m freestyle final also lit up the meet with the winner, Oleg Tikhobaev, clocking a time of 21.05 to position him as the second ranked swimmer in the world in this event. An unexpected tie for second place moves Evgeny Sedov and Sergei Fesik (both at 21.27) into the seventh position among the world’s top ten.
Two other races of the night were extremely close finishes, including the women’s 50m butterfly final, which was won by Rosalia Nasretainova in 25.98, just out-touching the 26.01 time of Anastasia Lyazeva. On the men’s side, the 400m freestyle contest saw Mikhail Polischuk pull away with the narrow victory over countryman Alexander Krasnykh by just .21 of a second: 3:42.45 for Polischuk, 3:42.66 for Krasnykh.
Finishing up the night’s finals, was Semen Makovich, who won the men’s 200 IM in a time of 1:54.93, now ranked seventh among the world’s best.
Competition resumes at 10:00 local time, where the preliminaries of the men’s 4 x 50m freestyle relay, 100m freestyle, 100m IM, and 50m breaststroke are set to take place. For the women, their preliminaries will include the 50m backstroke, 50m freestyle, 100m butterfly, and 200m IM.