Russian Championships: Egor Kornev Wins 100 Free; Kliment Kolesnikov Sixth
Egor Kornev dominated a deep field in the final of the men’s 100 freestyle at the Russian Championships on Friday, wrapping up the six-day meet with a title.
Kornev went 47.55 to win by more than a half-second and dip under the automatic qualifying time for the 2025 World Championships. The top three swimmers were under that standard, but Andrei Minakov gained selection priority by finishing second in 48.16, edging out Vladislav Grinev by .01 seconds. That had been the order in semifinals as well. (Kornev later went 47.39 on the anchor leg of St. Petersburg’s men’s medley relay.)
The surprise was a drop from fourth in semifinals to sixth in finals for Kliment Kolesnikov, who went 48.50. Ivan Girev and Vasily Kukushkin both beat him in tying for fourth place in 48.42.
The final night in Kazan featured eight individual and two relay finals.
Alexandra Kuznetsova delivered a big swim to win the women’s 50 freestyle in 24.80, a Worlds auto cut. She finished ahead of Arina Surkova, who was second in 24.94. Alina Gayfutdinova was third in 25.00. That trio had been separated by .05 seconds in semifinals.
A day after taking the national record in the men’s 50 breaststroke, Ivan Kozhakin didn’t even get the win Friday. He went 26.84, nearly four tenths shy of his new mark, and watched Kirill Prigoda finish the Russian Championships breaststroke sweep in 26.70. Both times are under the Worlds A cut. Deposed record holder Andrei Nikolaev was third in 27.36.
Evgeniia Chikunova dominated the women’s 200 breaststroke, winning by 6.5 seconds. Her time of 2:20.36 is a Worlds A cut.
Dmitri Savenko won the men’s 200 backstroke in 1:55.91, a Worlds A cut. He bested the field by more than two seconds, with Alexey Tkachev second in 1:58.16. Tokyo Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov was fourth in 1:58.68, capping a tumultuous Russian Championships in which he missed the A final in his first two swims.
After getting under the Worlds standard and threatening the Russian record with a 57.46 in prelims, Daria Klepikova scratched the 100 fly finals. That allowed Svetlana Chimrova to win in 58.12, short of the Worlds cut.
Klepikova instead won the 200 free in 1:58.05, another A cut. She just edged out Ksenia Misharina, who went 1:58.59. That came close to the 12-year-old Russian junior record of 1:58.21 owned by Maria Baklakova. Darya Surushkina, Anna Egorova and Sofia Dyakova all broke two minutes to round out the top five.
Alexander Kudashev won the men’s 200 fly in 1:56.26, shy of the Worlds standard. Alexander Stepanov won the men’s 1,500 freestyle in 15:05.69, two seconds ahead of Andrey Filipets.
