Russian Long Course Championships: Anastasia Zueva, Yuliya Efimova Close Meet With Stellar Swims

MOSCOW, Russia, April 23. THE Russian Long Course Championships concluded with quite a few more world-class swims going up on the scoreboard.

After throwing down a 59.51 in semis for second in the world in the women's 100 back, Anastasia Zueva improved that season best with a victorious 59.35. She still stands second to Aya Terakawa's 59.17 from the Japanese Nationals earlier this month. Kseniya Moskvina placed second in 1:01.15, while Maria Gromova took third in 1:02.02.

Yuliya Efimova jumped to third in the world rankings with a winning time of 2:24.17 in the women's 200 breast. Only Rebecca Soni (2:23.27) and Annamay Piesr (2:24.10) have been faster thus far. Irina Novikova placed second in 2:25.52, while Anastasia Chaun wound up third in 2:25.89. Novikova and Chaun both moved into the top 15 in the world rankings with their swims.

Roman Sludnov grabbed eighth in the world rankings in the men's 100 breast with a triumphant 1:00.69. Anton Lobanov placed second in 1:00.85 for a top 10 spot, while Grigory Falko finished third in 1:01.50.

A trio of 48s went to the podium in the men's 100 free with Nikita Lobintsev moving into the top 10 with a 48.62. Andrei Grechin placed second in 48.71, while Danila Izotov picked up third in 48.77. All three times are among the top 15 in the world rankings.

Vitaliy Borisov won the men's 50 back in 25.17, taking ninth in the world rankings. Stanislav Donets placed second in 25.48, while Sergei Makov finished third in 25.61.

Aleksandr Tikhonov improved to 18th in the world rankings in the men's 200 IM with a winning time of 2:00.14. Dmitriy Zhilin touched second in 2:00.82, while Ivan Trofimov picked up third in 2:02.63.

Daniil Serebrennikov topped the men's 1500 free in 15:22.62. Nikolai Bulakhov finished second in 15:25.71, while Kirill Abrosimov earned third in 15:28.77.

Svetlana Fedulova captured the women's 50 fly in 27.02, while Irina Bespalova touched just behind in 27.04. Veronika Popova grabbed third in 27.29 after a strong week in the freestyle events produced a pair of Russian records.

Saint Petersburg's team of Pavel Chesnokov, Vladislav Seriy, Grigory Falko and Andrei Grechin won the men's 400 medley relay in 3:40.33.

Special thanks to Priscilla Trillo for contributing to this report.

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