Kolesnikov, Borodin & Chimrova Wrap Up Wins On Day Two Of Swimming Cup Of Russia

2023 SWIMMING CUP OF RUSSIA

• Monday, May 1st & Tuesday, May 2nd
• Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia
• LCM (50m)
• Day 1 Recap
• Results

The second and final day of the 2023 Swimming Cup of Russia wrapped up tonight with big guns such as Kliment Kolesnikov, Kirill Prigoda, Andrei Minakov and Svetlana Chimrova taking to the pool.

Kolesnikov was the men’s 100m backstroke winner on the evening, with the 22-year-old Olympic medalist getting to the wall in a time of 53.55.

It was Pavel Samusenko who led at the halfway mark, producing an opening split of 25.85 to Kolesnikov’s 25.97. But K2 brought the speed on the back half to ultimately hit 53.55 while Samusenko settled for silver in 53.82. Nikolai Zuev also claimed a medal in 54.48 for bronze.

K2 has already been as quick as 52.54 from the Russian Championships just last week. That led the world rankings until China’s Xu Jiayu busted out an even quicker time of 52.47 last night at his national championships.

As for Minakov, the former Stanford swimmer raced in two events this evening.

He took the men’s 100m free in a mark of 48.72, just out-touching Vladyslav Hrynev who got to the wall .01 later in 48.73 for silver.

Minakov was also the bronze medalist in tonight’s 50m fly, hitting a mark of 23.41. It was Oleg Kostin who captured gold in 23.08 while last night’s 100m fly gold medalist Petr Zhikarev snagged silver in 23.35.

Kostin leads the entire world with his super swift 22.62 notched at the Russian Championships last month.

The men’s 400m IM saw Ilya Borodin get the job done, posting a time of 4:13.44. Maxim Stupin joined him as the only other swimmer under 4:30, clocking 4:17.00 as the runner-up.

Borodin was already as fast as 4:09.12 last month to rank as the #2 performer in the world this season.

Additional Day 2 Notes

• The women’s 50m free saw Arina Surkova grab the gold in a time of 24.77 as the sole swimmer to get under the 25-second threshold. Surkova clocked a time of 24.50 at last month’s Russian Championships to rank 6th in the world this season.
• Newly-minted World Record holder in the women’s 200m breast, Evgenia Chikunova stopped the clock in a time of 1:06.48 to take the 100m breast this evening. Chikunova beat the field by over 3 seconds, splitting 31.79/34.69 to top the podium. Her time of 1:04.92 from last month’s Russian Championships renders the 18-year-old the quickest swimmer in the world thus far this season.
• Andrei Nikolaev was the top men’s 50m breaststroker on the night, posting a winning effort of 27.08. He ranks #4 in the world with his speedier 26.84 from last month.
• The men’s 400m free saw Martin Malyutin claim victory in a time of 3:50.29. Malyutin already earned 200m free gold from last night’s race.
• Kirill Prigoda snagged 200m breast gold tonight by nearly 4 seconds ahead of the field. Prigoda stopped the clock in 2:09.22 while he owns the #1 time in the world this season with his 2:07.47 from last month’s championships.