Kliment Kolesnikov Bounces Back: 5 Big Things From Day 2 of ISL Match 7

2020 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – MATCH 7

• Thursday, November 5th: 10AM – 12 noon Local Time (3AM-5AM U.S. Central Time, 6PM – 8PM J+1 Japan)
• Friday, November 6th: 10Am – 12 noon Local Time (3AM-5AM U.S. Central Time, 6PM – 8PM J+1 Japan)
• Duna Arena – Budapest, Hungary
• Short Course Meters (SCM) Format
• ISL Technical Handbook
• 2020 ISL Scoring Format
• 2020 ISL Prize Money and Bonuses
• How to Watch
• Omega Results
• Start Lists Day 1
• Full Results Day 1
• Start Lists Day 2
• 4 Big Things From Day 1
• Teams: Energy Standard/DC Trident/Toronto Titans/Iron

Continuing with their lead from day 1, Energy Standard pulled off their second victory of Season 2 today. With Energy Standard’s runaway win, the bigger race on day 2 was for second place between Iron and the Toronto Titans. Lagging for the first half of the session, Iron ultimately made a comeback, surpassing Toronto to take second place at the meet. DC Trident finished in fourth.

FINAL TEAM SCORES

1. Energy Standard – 613 points
2. Iron – 448 points
3. Toronto Titans – 391 points
4. DC Trident – 256 points

As the seventh meet of the season came to an end, here are 6 big storylines to come out of the meet:

#1 Iron’s 50 Fly Jackpots

While Energy Standard delivered the win, Iron’s second-place finish came largely in part to some key jackpottings in the second half of the session. Their double 50 fly victories, combined with additional points stolen from the last few finishers yielded Iron with exactly what it needed to steal second place from Toronto;

Ranomi Kromowidjojo 50 Fly (19 Points)

• Kromowidjojo delivered her first win of the session by taking first place in the 50 fly. She swam to a 24.59, beating teammate Melanie Henique by just 0.12 seconds. The win was nice but even more important was that she stole points from both Toronto swimmers in the heat; Louise Hansson in fifth and Kylie Masse in eighth. Stealing from fifth place down gave Kromowidjojo a 19 point total which combined with Henique’s 7 points meant that Iron scored 26 out of the possible 37 points in the event.

Nicholas Santos 50 Fly (24 Points)

• In what was the turning point for the second-place team, Nicholas Santos followed Kromowidjojo’s lead and raced to a victory in the 50 fly. In jackpot fashion, Santos managed to steal a point from fourth place all the way down to eighth. Unfortunately for Iron, Toronto was able to sneak away with 6 points as Govorov came third and escaped the jackpot. Chad le Clos was second and gave Energy Standard 7 points. Considering Santos jackpotted teammate Marco Orsi out of any points, it was just Santos that scored points for Iron. Santos single-handedly won 24 of the possible 37 points in the event.

#2 Sjostrom’s Comeback Continued

After sitting out of Match 6 due to injury, Sarah Sjostrom raced in the 7th with a slightly reduced race load compared to normal. When she did swim though, Sjostrom was in top shape and scored a lot of key points for Energy Standard’s decisive victory over the other 3 teams.

In the first event of the Day, Sjostrom raced to a jackpot victory in the 100 freestyle. Sjostrom swam a 51.32, finishing 0.17 seconds ahead of teammate Siobhan Haughey for the victory. Along with the win, Sjostrom jackpotted on swimmer from each other team; Julie Meyen from Toronto, Madison Kennedy from DC, and Emilie Beckmann from Iron. That gave Sjostrom 15 points for the race and gave Energy Standard an increased lead in team standings.

Sjostrom rested during the 4×100 mixed freestyle relay despite having the fastest split of any woman to swim the 4×100 freestyle on Day 1. The decision paid off when Energy Standard won the relay anyways with Siobhan Haughey and Pernille Blume delivering solid splits of 51.92 and 51.81, respectively. Sjostrom was resting for the 50 freestyle skins which ended up being a decision that also paid off for the team. Sjostrom easily advanced to the second round along with teammate Femke Heemskerk and Iron sprinters Kromowidjojo and Henique. After Heemskerk and Henique were eliminated in round two, Sjostrom faced off against fellow Olympic gold medalist Kromowidjojo. In the final round, Sjostrom got out to an early lead and powered to the wall to finish in a 23.72; faster than she had swum in either of the first two rounds.

To put that into perspective, Sjostrom’s time in the final round of the skins; 23.72, would have placed third in the individual 50 freestyle at this match (behind only her own winning time of 23.41 and Kromowidjojo’s 23.55).

Combined from the 100 freestyle and three rounds of the skins, Sjostrom scored a total of 47 points for Energy Standard today.

#3 End Of The Skins Win Streak?

In Matches 1 through 6 of ISL Season 2, we’ve watched 12 skins races and 12 skins victories by the team who picked the stroke the race would be in (as a result of winning the 4×100 medley). To some, that streak may have ended today and to some, the streak may be still in effect. It all depends on how we decide who”wins” the skins.

Going off the assumption that the winner of the skins is the won who makes it to the final round and swim the fastest time in that third round; Emro Sakci won today’s skins race. Sakci was second to Shymanovich in the first round, and then won the next two rounds. If winning the final round makes one the skins winner, Sakci won and the streak is dead.

The other way of looking at it is on a points basis. While Sakci won the second and final rounds of the event, Shymanovich actually won more points than Sakci did. This was due to Shymanivoch’s jackpotting in the first round where he won the event and stole points from the slowest four swimmers. That gave him 19 points in the first round, resulting in a higher point total;

Shymanovich

• Round 1: 19
• Round 2: 7
• Round 3: 7
• Total: 33

Sakci

• Round 1: 7
• Round 2: 9
• Round 3: 14
• Total: 30

#4 DC Trident’s Last Meet

Following Match 6, DC Trident sat in 9th place in overall team standings this season. Further, Match 7 was their fourth and final meet of this phase of the season and the last time to score any points in the team standings. As at the end of Match 6 the team standings looked as follows;

Following Match 7 and Match 8, the team standings reflect the following;

Since DC has no further opportunities to score points for team standings purposes, they will unable to move up and will be either 9th or 10th depending on the Aqua Centurions’ performance. This means they will not make the top 8 and will not advance to the semi-finals. They are officially the first team to be knocked out of ISL Season 2.

#5 Kolesnikov

Match 7 featured a nice bounce back from Energy Standard swimmer Kliment Kolesnikov after he didn’t quite swim up to his potential at his first two meets this year; Matches 1 and 6. At match 1, Kolesnikov swam four individual events, scoring a total of only 6 points;

Match 1

• 200 Backstroke – 1:55.70 (7th, 2 points)
• 100 Freestyle – 47.57 (7th, 2 points)
• 50 Backstroke – 24.05 (8th, 0 points)
• 100 IM – 52.46 (7th, 0 Points)

He also raced as a part of the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay but lagged a bit, swimming a 47.37. At Match 6; Energy Standard’s second meet, Kolesnikov jumped down to 3 events and generally improved his times and scores both in individual races and in relays;

Match 6

• 200 Backstroke – 1:52.56 (6th, 3 points)
• 100 Freestyle – 47.18 (4th, 5 points)
• 100 IM – 53.10 (6th, 3 points)

His relay swims in the men’s 4×100 improved, moving down to a 46.97 and he added a swim in the 4×100 medley relay, helping his team to a fourth-place finish with a 50.59 backstroke leadoff. Following Match 6, Kolesnikov had his best performance yet with a bounce-back Match 7. He moved up in both of the individual swims that he raced and was a solid contribution to all 3 relays that participated in;

Match 7

• 200 backstroke – 1:50.10 (3rd, 6 points)
• 100 back – 49.42 (1st, 9 points)

His relay swims were stellar, starting with the men’s 4×100 freestyle where he had the fastest split out of all 32 in the field, swimming a 45.35; one of only 3 to crack the 46-second mark. He raced in the mixed freestyle relay as well, swimming quickly again with a 45.53. Arguably, his peak came in the 4×100 medley relay when he broke the ISL record on his backstroke leadoff with a 49.16. Last year’s record in that event was Guilherme Guido’s 49.50 and until Kolesnikov’s 49.16, no one this year had been faster than Ryan Murphy’s 49.62 at Match 1.