Kliment Kolesnikov Rebounds to Top 50 Back Prelims in Gwangju

KOLESNIKOV Kliment RUS Gold Medal and New World Junior Record 100m Backstroke Men Finals Glasgow 06/08/18 Swimming Tollcross International Swimming Centre LEN European Aquatics Championships 2018 European Championships 2018 Photo Andrea Masini/ Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto

Kliment Kolesnikov; Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia/Giorgio Scala

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World Swimming Championships Kliment Kolesnikov

Gwangju 2019

Day Seven Heats

Men’s 50 Back

Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov entered the 100 back earlier this week as a medal contender and certainly the top Russian after winning last year’s European title in 52.53, but Kolesnikov finished a disappointing ninth in the 100 back in a mark nine tenths away from his lifetime best. Kolesnikov also withdrew from the 200 back prior to the meet. But he bounced back with a nice morning effort in the 50 back, qualifying first for the semifinals by nine hundredths.

Kolesnikov put up a time of 24.61, ahead of the USA’s Michael Andrew (24.70) and France’s Jeremy Stravius (24.78). Andrew has already qualified for finals in the 50 fly, 50 breast and 50 free after a disappointing start to his week in the 100 breast. Meanwhile, Stravius, previously a finals contender and medal darkhorse in a wide spectrum of freestyle and backstroke events, is competing in his first individual event this week after only participating on France’s 4×100 free relay up to this point.

South Africa’s Zane Waddell was the next-best qualifier in 24.84, followed by 100 back World Champion Xu Jiayu of China (24.93) and the USA’s Ryan Murphy (24.93). Further down the list, 200 back World Champion Evgeny Rylov of Russia also got into the semis in the 50-meter race, with a 15th-place time of 25.16.

Semifinalists

1. Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS), 24.61
2. Michael Andrew (USA), 24.70
3. Jeremy Stravius (FRA), 24.78
4. Zane Waddell (RSA), 24.84
5. Xu Jiayu (CHN), 24.87
6. Ryan Murphy (USA), 24.93
7. Mohamed Samy (EGY), 24.95
8. Guilherme Guido (BRA), 24.98
9. Robert Glinta (ROU), 25.00
9. Apostolos Christou (GRE), 25.00
11. Shane Ryan (IRL), 25.10
12. Jonatan Kopelev (ISR), 25.11
12. Mikita Tsmyh (BLR), 25.11
14. Richard Bohus (HUN), 25.12
15. Evgeny Rylov (RUS), 25.16
16. Michael Laitarovsky (ISR), 25.26

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