Swimming

Andrei Minakov Throwns Down 50.86 In 100 Butterfly On Day 3 of Russian Championships

April 16, 2024

2024 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

April 14-19, 2024
Kazan, Russia
LCM (50 meters)
Meet Central
Live Results
Livestream
Day 1 Recap
Day 2 Recap

The 2024 Russian Swimming Championships continued in Kazan on Tuesday, and the third day of racing was action-packed. Finals of the men’s 100 butterfly, women’s 100 freestyle, women’s 200 backstroke, and men’s 800 freestyle were on the schedule of events along with semifinals of the women’s 50 butterfly, men’s 50 freestyle, women’s 100 breaststroke, and men’s 50 backstroke.

After clocking his fastest 100 fly effort since the Tokyo Olympics yesterday, Andrei Minakov lowered the mark to 50.86 for gold in the final. It checks-in as the 22-year-old’s 2nd fastest time ever, just sitting behind his national record from the 2019 Gwangju World Championships. He also moves up to 5th in the world so far this season, only sitting behind Noe Ponti (50.16), Matthew Temple (50.25), Caeleb Dressel (50.84), and Hubert Kos (50.84).

Andrei Minakov, Top 5 Fastest 100 Butterfly Performances:

50.83 — July 2019, Gwangju World Championships
50.86 — April 2024, Russian Championships
50.88 — July 2021, Tokyo Olympic Games
50.94 — July 2019, Gwangju World Championships
51.00 — July 2021, Tokyo Olympic Games

He split the race much more conservatively in tonight’s final: 23.91 at the 50m mark compared to 23.33 in semifinals. When he broke the national record in 2019, he found a middle ground between the two swims, as he split 23.50 on the first 50 and came home in 27.33 over the final 50 meters. He closed in 26.95 in tonight’s final and notched 27.71 during Monday’s semifinal swim. See a full splits comparison between the three races below.

Splits Comparison:

	Andrei Minakov In Finals:	Andrei Minakov In Semifinals:	Andrei Minakov‘s National Record From 2019:
First 50	23.91	23.33	23.50
Second 50	26.95	27.71	27.33
Total Time	50.86	51.04	50.83

The women’s 100 free final saw 2005-born Daria Klepikova snag gold in 54.09, just 0.02 outside her career-best 54.07 from July’s Russian Swimming Cup. Daria Trofimova, who swam to the fastest semifinal time of 54.06, touched in 54.42 for 3rd place. Her semifinal time would’ve been good enough for gold if she had replicated it. Trofimova has been as fast as 54.02 in the event, which she threw down last July. Yana Shakirova (54.36) held her 2nd place seed in the final. The top three finishers are all 19-years-old, which bodes well for the future of Russian sprinting.

The sprint breaststroke battle from the past few days was once again on display in the women’s 100m semifinals. After Tatiana Belonogoff outshined the field in yesterday’s 50m final, Evgeniia Chikunova made her intentions clear tonight. Chikunova (1:06.14) posted the only sub-1:07 time to lead the field into Wednesday’s final by well over a second. At this meet last year, Chikunova stunned with a big-time clocking of 1:04.92, which made her the 7th fastest performer in history.

Five competitors broke 25-seconds in the men’s 50 back semifinals, with world record holder Kliment Kolesnikov leading the way with a statement-making 24.28. Last July, Kolesnikov reclaimed his world record the Russian Swimming Clup with a blistering time of 23.55.

In yesterday’s 100 back, Kolesnikov had his 100 backstroke World Junior Record broken by Miron Lifintsev (52.34). Kolesnikov (52.80) had to settle for 2nd in that race behind Lifinstsev, but he looks to be the clear favorite for gold in tomorrow’s 50m final. Lifinstsev checked-in at 24.66 for the 3rd seed tonight, just off his best time of 24.56 from July.

Pavel Samusenko (24.35), Evgeny Rylov (24.70), and Dmitry Savenko (24.78) were the other athletes to swim in the 24-second realm. Rylov, who won double backstroke gold at the Tokyo Olympics, was 5th in yesterday’s 100m back final in 53.13. Savenko secured bronze in that same race with a sub-53 time (52.90).

Egor Kornev broke 22-seconds for the first time to lead the 50 free semifinals. He touched in 21.96 to slide under his previous lifetime best (22.01) from last July. On day one, Kornev led St. Petersburg to the 4×100 free relay gold medal with a best time leading-off his squad. He opened in 47.87 to dip under his previous best of 48.03 from last July.

Daniil Markov (22.05) sits in 2nd while Kolesnikov (22.10) lurks in 3rd overall. Kolesnikov (21.69) and Markov (21.85) both own sub-22 best times to their name from April of 2022.

Other Results:

15-year-old Milana Stepanova proved to be too fast for the rest of the women’s 200 back field. She put her hand on the wall in 2:11.37 for gold, with training partner Renata Gainullina (2:11.72) representing the only other swimmer under the 2:12-barrier.
Kirill Martynychev, 21, touched 1st in the men’s 800 free final. His outing of 7:51.89 was enough to defeat the field by nearly two seconds. In a very tight battle for 2nd, it was Ivan Morgun (7:53.77) who got the touch ahead of Savely Luzin (7:53.82) and Monday’s 400m free winner Alexander Stepanov (7:54.18).
25-year-old Arina Surkova (25.77) was the only swimmer to crack 26-seconds in the women’s 50 fly semifinals. She owns the Russian record, courtesy of her 25.30 from this same meet last year.