Rylov, Surkova, Minakov Secure Golds As 2024 Russian Swimming Cup Concludes

2024 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CUP

• Tuesday, July 23rd – Sunday, July 28th
• Yekaterinburg, Russia
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Recap #1/Recap #2
• Entries/Results
• Livestream

The 2024 Russian Swimming Cup concluded from Yekaterinburg tonight with the nation’s athletes racing domestically instead of at the Olympic Games.

As a reminder, the Russian Swimming Federation is offering bonuses to the tune of 2 million rubles (~$23,000 USD) if event winners here clock a better time than the Olympic champion in Paris.

We’ll keep track of the time comparisons and publish any monetary awards once the Olympic action has finished.

Evgenia Chikunova may well be one of the swimmers who nab some cash, as the 19-year-old ripped a monster time of 2:18.98 to win the women’s 200m breaststroke.

You can read more about her scorching swim here.

After becoming the 4th-fastest Russian 50m freestyler of all time, 20-year-old Egor Kornev doubled up with a victory in the 100m freestyle.

Kornev stopped the clock at 47.82 to represent the sole racer of the field to get under the 48-second barrier.

Kornev opened in 22.63 and brought it home in 25.19 to nab a healthy advantage over runner-up Andrei Minakov. Minakov touched in 48.07 for silver while Vasily Kukushkin rounded out teh podium in 48.79.

Kornev’s outing ties the 47.82 personal best he produced at the Russian National Championships this past April to rank as Russia’s 7th-swiftest man in history.

Already the winner of the 200m IM in a new Russian record, Ilya Borodin topped the men’s 400m IM podium as well.

21-year-old Borodin notched a gold medal-worthy result of 4:11.71 to get to the wall nearly 4 seconds ahead of the pack.

Borodin is the Russian national record holder in this event, owning a lifetime best of 4:08.05 from the 2022 Solidarity Games.

Olympic medalist Evgeny Rylov proved too quick to catch in the men’s 200m back, putting up a time of 1:54.63 as the victor.

That was enough to hold off Dmitry Savenko and Alexey Tkachev who also landed on the podium with respective silver and bronze. The former logged 1:55.73 to the latter’s 1:57.42.

Rylov has been as rapid as 1:53.23 in his career, the Russian national record he put on the books at the 2021 Russian National Championships.

He grabbed Olympic gold in this event in Tokyo, upgrading from the bronze he earned 5 years earlier at the 2016 Games in Rio. Rylov’s winning effort in Tokyo was 1:53.27, a new Olympic Record.

The women’s 50m free saw Arina Surkova bust out a mark of 24.61 to beat the field in the sole sub-25-second result.

Daria Trofimova secured silver in 25.08 and Alexandra Kurilkina bagged bronze in 25.27.

Surkova’s 24.61 was within striking distance of her career-best 24.34 from April’s Russian Championships.

Additional Notes

• Alina Gayfutdinova doubled up with her 50m back victory by taking the women’s 100m back event. She clocked the sole sub-minute result of the field, hitting 59.87 for gold.
• Roman Shevlyakov secured the win in the men’s 50m fly, posting 23.07 for the decisive win. Behind him was Egor Yurchenko in 23.53 and Mikhail Vekovishchev in 23.55.
• The women’s 100m fly saw Daria Klepikova get the job done in a time of 58.25.
• Ivan Kozhakin claimed gold in the men’s 50m breast in 27.03.