Evgeniia Chikunova Breaks 200 Breast SCM World Junior Record at Salnikov Cup

Evgenia Chikunova - Photo Courtesy: FINA / Budapest 2019

Evgeniia Chikunova of Russia broke the world junior record in the 200 breast in short course meters on Saturday at the Salnikov Cup in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Chikunova swam a 2:17.71 to break her won world junior record that she set last month at 2:18.59. She won ahead of sister Daria (2:20.75) and Maria Temnikova (2:21.82).

The 15-year-old has been on fire this year as she was the European Juniors gold medalist in the 200 breast with a 2:23.0 but swam a 2:21.0 in the semi finals to put herself third in the world for the 2019 calendar year. She followed that up with two golds at World Juniors in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

Evgeniia Chikunova moved herself up to just outside of the top ten all-time in the 200 breaststroke as she is third in the world for this year in short course meters behind Lilly King (2:17.0) and Brit Jocelyn Ulyett (2:17.1). She would have been second at the ISL Final yesterday with her time as only King was quicker (2:17.0).

17-year-old Artem Selin nearly broke the second World Junior record of the day as he won the 50 free with a 21.25, just missing Kliment Kolesnikov’s record of 21.24 set two years ago. Selin won the 50 free final ahead of Mikhail Vekovishchev (21.28) and Sergei Fesikov (21.38), who also took wins in other events on the day. Vekovishchev won the 100 butterfly with a 49.75 as he was slightly off his 49.5 from Europeans last week but was good enough for the win as he finished ahead of Worlds silver medalist Andrei Minakov (50.60), who will be a freshman at Stanford University next fall in the United States.

Fesikov won the 50 backstroke final at 30-years-old as he was a 23.35 in touching just 0.01 ahead of Grand Canyon grad Mark Nikolaev (23.36).

The other big winner on the day was Mariia Kameneva, who is racing at home for St. Petersburg-Orenburg. After breaking the Russian record last night in the 50 backstroke, she followed that up with two wins on Saturday in the 100 freestyle (52.37) and 100 backstroke (57.85). She set the 100 back Russian record earlier this month at Europeans with a 56.1, but she was unable to get the 100 free record as she missed Veronika Andrusenko’s mark of 52.0 from 2015. Kameneva took down Anastasia Fesikova in the 100 back (58.30) and Daria Ustinova in the 100 free (53.34).

Andrusenko won the 400 free final with a 4:04.03 as the 28-year-old has shifted her focus to longer events, finaling in the 400 free at the World Championships this summer. She was a 3:58 earlier this year in setting the Russian record.

Other Winners on the Day from the Salnikov Cup:

Men’s 200 Free: Aleksandr Shchegolev, 1:43.60
Women’s 50 Breast: Alina Zmushka, Belarus, 30.03
Men’s 100 Breast: Andrei Nikolaev, 57.95
Women’s 200 IM: Irina Krivonogova, 2:08.32
Women’s 200 Fly: Svetlana Chimrova, 2:07.02
Men’s 1500 Free: Ilia Druzhinin, 14:49.47
Men’s 200 Back: Mikita Tsmyh, Belarus, 1:52.76
Women’s 50 Fly: Arina Surkova, 25.29

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