Kolesnikov, Surkova, Prigoda, Andrusenko Among Headliners At Russian SC Champs | SwimSwam

By Ben Dornan on SwimSwam

Russian Short Course Championships

• Monday, December 14th – Saturday, December 19th
• St. Petersburg, Russia
• SCM (25m)
• Meet Page
• Onlin Broadcast
• Results Page

Some of the biggest names in Russian swimming will meet in St. Petersburg this week in what will many of their last shots at racing in 2020. The meet will see the likes of world record holders Kliment Kolesnikov and Kirill Prigoda, along with national record holders Arina Surkova and Veronica Andrusenko. Despite appearances from many of Russia’s top swimmers, a fair number of national teamers will be absent including breaststroke allstars Yuliya Efimova and Anton Chupkov, and sprinters Vlad Morozov, Andrei Minakov, and Maria Kameneva.

In what will surely be an exciting race, Kolesnikov will race his signature 100 backstroke, entered as the top seed. Just a few weeks ago at the 2020 ISL finale, Kolesnikov set a new world recorded with a 48.58 swim, taking it back from China’s Xu Jiayu. It’s Kolesnikov’s second WR in the event, having broken it for the first time back in 2017 with a 48.90, holding it until Jiayu’s 48.88 swim in 2018. Kolesnikov’s biggest competitor in the event will be fellow national teamer Evengy Rylov who enter as second seed with a 49.55.

Another recent record-breaker to go in as top seed in Arina Surkova in the 50 and 100 butterflies. Surkova raced for the New York Breakers in 2020 as a part of her debut ISL season. Over the course of the season, Surkova lowered the Russian records in the butterfly sprints, setting new marks of 24.87 and 56.36, respectively.

Kirill Prigoda will get a shot at showing off his dominance in all three breaststrokes this week as he will swim the 50/100/200 triple. Not only is he the top seed in each event but he is also the national record holder in each of them with a 25.49 (2020), 56.02 (2017), and 2:00.16 (2018) in the events. That 200 mark of 2:00.16 is actually also a world record in the event. It came from the Prigoda’s gold medal performance at the 2018 World Short Course Championships. Having only been under 2:01 once, Prigoda will have a shot this weeks at becoming the first person to ever crack the 2 minute mark in the event.

Another race to watch this week will be the men’s 100 freestyle. In the absence of current Russian record holder Vlad Morozov, Vlad Grinev, Evengy Rylov, and Mikhail Vekovischev will duke it out for the top time, each looking to crack the 46 second mark. Grinez has been under the barrier once before, swimming a 45.92 at the 2018 Short Course World Championships in Hangzhou, China. Rylov and Vekovischev on the other hand sit with PBs of 46.09 and 46.68, respectively.

In both the 200 and 400 freestyles, Veronika Andrusenko will try to hold off the competition and retain her top seed throughout the competition. Her 3:58.25 Russian record in the 400 is exactly 3 seconds ahead of second seed Anna Egorova. She’ll have a tougher time, however, in the 200 in which she is only 0.69 seconds ahead of second seed Valeria Salamatina. Andrusenko and Salmatina are entered with times of 1:54.25 and 1:54.94, respectively with Daria S. Ustinova not too far behind at 1:55.09 for third.

The will run Momday – Saturday with prelims beginning each day at 9am local time / 1am Eastern with finals starting each night at 6pm local / 10am Eastern. Follow along here on SwimSwam for daily recaps of the meet.

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