Although 5 swimmers hit Short Course World Championship qualifying standards on day 1 of the 2018 Russian Short Course National Championships, there are a number of swimmers who are conspicuously absent from the meet sheets.
A group of 6 athletes, Yulia Efimova, Anton Chupkov, Vlad Morozov, Evgeny Rylov, Kiril Prigoda, and Vitalina Simonova have been confirmed by Russian National Team Head Coach Sergey Chepik as being exempted from the Russian Championships this week while competing at the FINA World Cup stop in Tokyo, Japan.
- Vlad Morozov, the current World Record holder in the 100 SCM IM, is the World Cup Series leader in men’s scoring. He has 8 Short Course World Championships (and an additional 5 Short Course World Championship silver medals) on his resume, and was a part of all 5 title-winning Russian relays at the last edition in 2016.
- Breaststroker Vitalina Simonova, who was the 2013 European Short Course Championships silver medalist in the 200 breaststroke (one of the swimmers who benefited from the doping violation of her countrymate Yulia Efimova) and the understudy on the European Championship winning 400 medley relay earlier this summer.
- The aforementioned Efimova currently ranks 3rd in the World Cup standings. She has only 1 World Short Course Championship medal: a 2008 bronze in the 2000 breaststroke, though she’s won 14 medals at the long course World Championships
- Anton Chupkov, the defending World and European Champion in the 200 breaststroke in long course, has no major international medals in short course. He’s never raced at the World Short Course Championships. He’s currently ranked 5th overall in the men’s standings.
- Evgeny Rylov, the defending World and European Champion in the 200 backstsroke, also has no major international short course medals to his name. Rylov did race the first day at Russian Nationals, though he was 3rd and short of the cut time in the 100 back, so it’s unclear if he’s skipping the World Cup meet or will leave Kazan for Tokyo before Saturday’s start.
- Kiril Prigoda has 6 World Cup wins so far this year and ranks 2nd only to Morozov in the men’s standings.
Their times from Tokyo will be rolled in to the Russian Championship results to check for both clearance of the qualifying standards and top-2 standings among those who are swimming in Kazan this weekend.
Men
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Points awarded | Total[7] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RUS | QAT | NED | HUN | CHN | JPN | SGP | ||||
| 1 | Vladimir Morozov |  Russia |
54 | 30 | 80 | 54 | 54 | 272 | ||
| 2 | Kirill Prigoda | Russia |
18 | 18 | 42 | 30 | 60 | 168 | ||
| 3 | Mitch Larkin |  Australia |
36 | 36 | 36 | 36 | 21 | 165 | ||
| 4 | Michael Andrew |  United States |
42 | 45 | 6 | 30 | 27 | 150 | ||
| 5 | Anton Chupkov | Russia |
48 | 42 | 18 | 18 | 21 | 147 | ||
| 6 | Blake Pieroni | United States |
21 | 36 | 30 | 30 | 27 | 144 | ||
| 7 | Chad le Clos |  South Africa |
30 | 0 | 33 | 33 | – | 96 | ||
| 8 | Dávid Verrasztó |  Hungary |
27 | 27 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 90 | ||
Women
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Points awarded | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RUS | QAT | NED | HUN | CHN | JPN | SGP | ||||
| 1 | Sarah Sjöström |  Sweden |
60 | 60 | 54 | 30 | 33 | 237 | ||
| 2 | Katinka Hosszú | Hungary |
36 | 54 | 36 | 36 | 60 | 222 | ||
| 3 | Yuliya Yefimova | Russia |
42 | 36 | 45 | 30 | 51 | 204 | ||
| 4 | Ranomi Kromowidjojo |  Netherlands |
24 | 39 | 30 | 36 | 33 | 162 | ||
| 5 | Femke Heemskerk | Netherlands |
24 | 27 | 21 | 21 | 39 | 132 | ||
| 6 | Wang Jianjiahe |  China |
– | – | 54 | 68 | – | 122 | ||
| 7 | Alia Atkinson |  Jamaica |
– | – | 21 | 68 | 21 | 110 | ||
| 8 | Kira Toussaint | Netherlands |
36 | 30 | 6 | 0 | 18 | 90 | ||