The opening three days of the Russian Short Course Championships have seen national records stamped and Beijing selection spots locked in.
The meet at the Nevskaya Volna Water Sports Center, St Petersburg, offers swimmers the chance to qualify for the Russian team for the short-course worlds in the Chinese capital next month.
There’ll be no restrictions to them competing under the Russian flag unlike the European Championships in August where they attended as Neutral Athletes.
Egor Kornev will travel to China to cap off a year in which he’s announced himself at the sprinting top table. He won the 50 fly in St Petersburg in 21.69 ahead of Oleg Kostin who clocked 21.98. That was 0.41 off the world record of 21.28 he flew to at the Tashkent World Cup stop last month and the joint 18th fastest in history.
Kornev also rose to number three performer all-time in the 100IM in a Russian record of 50.23 in the semis. He took a second off his PB and 0.03 off Vlad Morozov’s national standard of 50.26 he posted twice in late 2018.
It was the fourth-fastest all time behind only Caeleb Dressel’s 49.28 WR at the ISL final in November 2020 and his 49.88 a week earlier and Leon Marchand’s European record of 49.92 at the 2024 World Cup.
Pavel Samusenko won the men’s 100 back in 48.61 with Alina Gaifutdinova taking the women’s title in 56.63.
Egor Proshin posted 46.30 for the men’s 100 free title with Darya Trofimova taking the women’s crown in 51.90.
Evgeniia Chikunova led the women’s 100 breast in 1:04.45 with Ivan Kozhakin heading the men’s in 56.42 ahead of Kirill Prigoda and Alexander Zhigalov (56.78). Grigory Vekovishchev won the men’s 400 free in 3:36.62.