2019 SHORT COURSE RUSSIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, November 5 – Sunday, November 10, 2019
- Kazan, Russia
- Short Course Meters (25m/SCM) format
- Prelims 9 AM / Finals 6 PM (Local time)
- Live Stream
- Live Results
21-year-old Arina Surkova had a great night at Russia’s Short Course Nationals, winning the 100 free title (52.43) and setting a Russian record in semifinals of the 50 fly (25.27).
Surkova’s 25.27 in the 50 fly took exactly a tenth off the old record, held by Rosaliya Nasretdinova since last November. Surkova won the race by nine tenths of a second, and was a full 1.2 seconds ahead of Nasretdinova, who finished just 5th.
Surkova, a two-time relay medalist at 2018 Short Course Worlds, also won the 100 free in 52.43. That’s just four tenths off the national record. It’s also much faster than her previous best time, a 54.4 per SwimRankings.net.
Two other Russian women set national records. Maria Kameneva broke her own record while leading semis of the 100 IM. The star of the meet so far, Kameneva went 58.39, a half-second under her record from last fall. That new time would have been 5th at Short Course Worlds last year – Kameneva was eliminated in the semis at that meet. In Kazan this week, Kameneva won the 100 back on day 2 and had a big 100 free split on a relay on day 1.
And in the final individual event of the session, Anastasia Kirpichnikova went 8:10.62 for a new Russian record in the 800 free. Just 19 years old, Kirpichnikova came into the meet with a best time of 8:18.44, according to SwimRankings. For comparison, Kirpichnikova’s time would have ranked 6th in the world for 2018 and would have been 6th at Short Course Worlds.
On the men’s side, Mikhail Dorinov popped a 2:03.97 in the 200 breast, ranking #2 in the world this season.
For Dorinov, that’s a very solid swim, on par with what he went at Short Course Worlds last year (2:03.84). The 24-year-old was 2:02.6 at best last year, and holds a 2:01.8 lifetime-best from 2017. Short course world rankings aren’t terribly reliable at the moment, but that time is faster than anyone but Matthew Wilson (2:03.93) went in the first four ISL meets.
Meanwhile, 30-year-old Sergey Fesikov has himself in line for two potential national title tomorrow night. He leads the semifinals of both the 100 IM (51.30) and 50 back (23.37). He’s going to have his hands full, though. Kliment Kolesnikov is behind him in both races. Kolesnikov is far from his bests this week, but is the world record-holder in the long course 50 back, and could be in the mix to challenge Evgeny Rylov’s 22.58 short course Russian record. Kolesnikov has also been 50.6 in the 100 IM, just tenths from Vladimir Morozov’s Russian record of 50.26.
Other event winners on day 3:
- Daria K. Ustinova won the women’s 200 back, going 2:03.95 to win by almost two seconds.
- The men’s 100 fly went to Oleg Kostin in 50.05, a narrow touchout of upset 200 free winner Mikhail Vekovishchev (50.15).
- Alexander Popkov is the top qualifier out of semis in the men’s 50 free. He was 21.30 – a tick faster than his 21.38 relay leadoff last night.