And who is the champion?
In Russian swimming, despite the isolation and non-admission to the World Championships, which took place in Fukuoka, Japan, they are not going to give up.
At the last Russian Cup final in Kazan, 18-year-old Evgenia Chikunova won the 200-meter breaststroke.
This victory is made special by the fact that the Russian woman swam better than her rivals, who were sweeping the distance in Japan at almost the same time.
Chikunova cleared four groups in 2:19.71. This result is much better than the one shown by the South African swimmer Tatiana Schoenmaker in Fukuoka. The result of the world champion from Africa is 2:20.80.
This is a second worse than the time of our Evgenia! And who is the real champion?
Evgenia Chikunova
Photo: RIA Novosti
acceleration per million
To celebrate such “golden” results, the country’s swimming federation (FSM) announced that Evgeny Chikunova will receive 1 million rubles for winning the country’s Cup final and surpassing the result of the 2023 World Cup winner.
Chikunova herself admits that she is satisfied with the result.
“For the most part I am satisfied, I wanted to swim faster than at the World Championships, I wanted to overtake this time. When I did a turn from 150 to 200, I realized that I needed to add. I tried to calculate how much to add, and then decided not to count and just speed up. It’s hard to get to the top twice in a season, especially in the 200. It takes a lot of stamina.
I take this virtual competition somehow calmly, such circumstances … Of course, I follow the results that the girls show in international competitions, but most of all I focus on myself, try to improve my time, move on. There are many good brassists in the world, but so far, I have to admit that I have no equal in the 200s,” said Chikunova.
Such a strong statement is not boasting. After all, it was Chikunova who in April 2023 set a world record in the crown distance – 2:17.55.
In the 2023 World Cup, an old rival Efimova shone:
“He made an embarrassing mistake.” Her rival Efimova returned for gold after a doping scandal
Klim kicks with a wedge!
In total, after the results of the final of the Russian Cup in Kazan and the World Championships in Fukuoka, the Russian Swimming Federation will distribute an additional three million prize money to athletes for surpassing the results of the new world champions .
Two of the three million will go to Kliment Kolesnikov.
The two-time winner of the 2020 Olympics became the first in the 100-meter backstroke final, setting a new Russian record. His time is 51.82 seconds. Thus, Clement surpassed in time Ryan Murphy, who won the World Cup in 2023.
And the second million is for a world record. Hello in Japan, have you seen it?
The Russian swam the 50m backstroke in 23.55 (semifinal) and 23.68 (final) seconds. But former United States world record holder Hunter Armstrong won the 2023 World Championships with a time of 24.05. Well, is he the best?
The world cannot ignore the records of our swimmers:
“I’m shocked.” The International Federation still approved the world records of Russian swimmers.
“Need to stay motivated”
The initiative of the Russian Swimming Federation with additional payments can only be welcomed. And the spirit of competition has strengthened, and the mood of Russian swimmers has improved. We can fight!
“Today, everyone understands that it is necessary to keep athletes motivated and come up with something new for this. In terms of prize money, I don’t want to say that we have completely closed the horizons that arise from winning the World Championship and with world records, but the amounts are quite comparable.
Did the season end without taking international competitions into account? My belief is that we cannot put emphasis on “suddenly”. We have to work on the issue of the calendar and the organization of the competition so that, if this “sudden” does not happen, we have a high season that no one will take away from our athletes. This “maybe” in athlete training planning is simply killing. Therefore, we are preparing to design the season so that in any case there is a full cycle. We have the Russian championship in April. It can still be considered as a selection for the Olympic Games, ”Match TV quotes the head of the Russian Swimming Federation Vladimir Salnikov as saying.
Of course, I would like to believe that Russian swimmers will have the Olympics.
Our stars are capable of making noise in Paris.
Is Michael Phelps still cool or not anymore?
The mythical Michael Phelps has already been stripped of almost all world records. What was he left with?
