Team Moscow Stuns With 2 Meet Records at Russian Juniors

Photo Courtesy: Russian Swimming Federation

The finals session of day four of Russian Junior Nationals had some thrilling races and great results with some fast swims anticipated tomorrow. Team Moscow shined with a pair of meet records tonight.

The girls 100 breast produced one of the most entertaining finals of the day. Three medalists finished within six tenths of a second. Ekaterina Mikhailova managed to touch the wall first and won the national title with 1.12.26 while her rivals Margarita Dryamina and Victoria Sazonova (1.12.66 and 1.12.84) took silver and bronze.

The 400 IM grueling final brought Evgeny Somov to his second gold medal of the meet. He won it with 4.28.53. Potapov Yaroslav finished second with 4.29.25 and Maxim Stupin was third (4.31.35). Even though the whole event was a bit slow, three medalists and Cristian Khodatsky who finished fourth (4.33.33), put up a great battle for the podium and pleased fans with a thrilling finish.

Alexandra Denisenko, who breaks meet records in every final she participates in (200, 400IM), may try to beat another one in the 100 fly tomorrow. In semifinals, the 14 year old from Saint Petersburg seeded first with 1.02.49, a one second behind the meet record from 2013. Yana Kurtseva was second (1.03.49), Lada Gerasimova – third 1.03.70 and Darya Loboda qualified fourth – 1.03.81.

Another meet record may fall tomorrow in girls 50 free. Tonight, Victoria Nosova got top seed with 26.66, while the meet record is 26.36. Valeria Sukhanova who seeded second, may break it as well as her semis time was 26.72. Katarina Milutitovic who was third with 26.90 definitely will be a contender for a gold and National title along with two top seeds.

Gleb Karasev, who won 50 free last night, is getting ready to add another gold to his sprint collection, this time in the 100 free. He posted the fastest semifinals result of 51.32. It’s unlikely that he will chase Evgeny Sedov’s record of 50.11 but definitely he’s a strong bet for the gold. His closest rivals will be: Climent Kolesnikov (52.04), Ivan Gireev and Vyatcheslav Sannikov (both 52.16) and Vadim Mikhailov (52.24).

Team Moscow set two meet records in one day in the last event of the session – 4×100 free mixed. Boys aged 15-16 and girls of 13-14 swam 3.49.44 in prelims and 3.40.35 in finals. Worth mentioning that Team Volgograd preliminary time was just 0.06 behind the meet record by their Moscow rivals – 3.49.50. One could think that in finals they were going to break it in front of domestic crowd yet fell short and finished second again (3.42.22). This time Moscow’s lead was solid two seconds.

Sverdlovsk region earned bronze with 3.48.11.

Live Results (Russian)

Russian Juniors: Day 1-2

Russian Juniors: Day 3

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use