Olympian Krapyvina Pulls Out Mid-Swim As Kirpichnikova Takes 10k Title

2020 RUSSIAN OPEN WATER CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, September 13th – Thursday, September 16th
• Anapa, Krasnodar Krai Territory
• OW

With the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games, a new set of selection criteria were devised for the Russian open water swimming team in terms of qualification for Tokyo.

The process to qualify for the final Olympic selection event of the World Championships in Fukuoka at the end of May includes a 3-stage process for Russian swimmers.

The first is represented by the Russian Open Water Swimming Championships currently taking place this week in the Black Sea. Participants who placed 1st through 6th in the 10k distance were awarded points contributing to their Olympic selection.

The additional stages of Olympic qualification include federal district competitions set for early 2021, as well as the European Open Water Swimming Championships set for May of next year.

The points earned per each spot among the top 6 across each stage is displayed below:
With this in mind, Kirill Abrosimov racked up 18 points via his overall victory in the men’s open 10k race here in Anapa. Hitting the time pad in a mark of 1:57:48.5, the 28-year-old held off 2016 Olympian Evgeny Drattsev who finished just 4 seconds back.

Also making the podium was Artem Mamushkin, who touched just over a second later to snag 12 points with his 3rd place finish.

This win for Abrosimov continues his momentum from his nation’s Open Water Swimming Cup last month. He won the men’s 5k there in the Penza region.

As for the women, it was somewhat of an upset that first-time open water competitor Anastasia Kirpichnikova got it done for gold, quite handily at that. She hit the timer in 2:09:06.3 to hold an 11+ second advantage over runner-up Ekaterina Sorokina.

Kirpichnikova raced in the pool at the 2019 World Championships, contesting the women’s 800m and 1500m freestyle events in Gwangju. She missed the final in each, placing 16th and 15th, respectively.

This competition marks her first time competing in the open water and she performed impressively, beating seasoned swimmers Sorokina, as well as Valeria Ermakova, who took bronze.

Another surprise in the race was the fact that 2016 Olympian Anastasia Krapyvina wound up not finishing, pulling out of the race after the 6250 mark. At that point, she was nearly 6 minutes behind the leaders.