In Fukuoka, the 2023 World Aquatic Championships ended, where no Russian athletes participated. At the same time, the final of the Russian Cup in swimming was held in Kazan, so you can compare the results of the Russians with the results of the winners of the world championships. The activity is exciting, the results are not the worst.
But not the best either.
Which of the Russians could become the world champion?
If we rely on the results alone, without taking into account geographic location, possible acclimatization, time zone difference, and other factors, the Russians would have gold medals in three types of swimming programs.
Kliment Kolesnikov would have been out of range in the 50 and 100 meter backstroke. The results from him are on a completely different level than those of the participants in the World Cup. In the non-Olympic fifty dollars, he broke the world record in the semifinal of the Russian Cup, and in the final he swam faster than the previous world achievement of American Hunter Armstrong. In Fukuoka, Armstrong failed to break the 24-second barrier, while Kolesnikov did it with ease.
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In the 100 meters, the leader of Russian swimming also confidently surpassed the 52-second mark, while the American world champion Ryan Murphy swam in 52.22. Here, too, Clemente could have had gold.
World record holder in the 200m breaststroke Yevgenia Chikunova would also become world champion in her favorite distance. The South African Tatyana Schoenmaker, who took the gold in Fukuoka, led the Russian in a duel of absences by more than a second: 2:19.71 against 2:20.80.
It is worth noting that the Russian Swimming Federation added checks for three million rubles (two to Clement, one to Evgenia) to the final results of Kolesnikov and Chikunova, who were ahead of the world champions.
Which of the Russians would be among the winners?
In the 50m butterfly heat, the winner of the Russian Cup final, Oleg Kostin, showed a result of 22.71, only three hundredths of a second worse than the Italian world champion Thomas Ceccon. And if Oleg swam like at the Russian Championship in April, he, too, could claim the championship title.
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Evgenia Chikunova would have fought with the American Lilly King for silver (the Russian has the highest result in the KR) in the 100-meter breaststroke, but she would not have been able to reach the Lithuanian Ruta Meilutite. Brassist Kirill Prigoda at a distance of 200 m swam at the bronze level of the World Championships, but there is a whole abyss before the Chinese Qin Haiyan.
Who else would compete for the medals?
With the results that were shown in the final heats in Kazan, Pavel Samusenko (50 m backstroke – fourth time), Ilya Borodin (400 m individual medley – fourth time), two-time Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov (200 m backstroke – the fourth time, 100 m backstroke – the fifth time), Arina Surkova (50 m butterfly – the sixth time). Maybe even the men’s 4x200m relay.
That is all for now. And it’s worth noting that Borodin, Prigoda and Rylov would not have reached the swimming final at the 2023 World Cup if they had swum in the preliminaries in the same way as in Kazan.
“It is difficult to compare directly: the emotional state is different, the weather and time zones are different. But the records speak for themselves. Our performance at the World Championships would not seem to pale. If there were people who stood on a pedestal, we would definitely not go without medals, ”said Vladimir Salnikov, head of the All-Russian Swimming Federation.
Where are the reserves of the Russian team?
If we assume that the Russians will still be able to participate in the Olympics, reservations should be sought only in the motivation of the current leaders and in the precise connection.
Even if you look at the results of athletes in 2005 and younger, it is impossible to lose a few seconds of their results in a year. We are happy that at the Russian Cup the young Sofya Dyakova, only 15 years old, beat the experienced Anna Egorova in the 400 m freestyle, but at the world level her results are very weak.
In the same freestyle, the results of the entire team allow us to count on only a couple of places in the short distance finals, and that’s it. In butterfly only fifty and fifty sprinters are competitive, and in 100 and 200 meters there are no options. And it is also Christoph Milak who decided to miss the World Cup in Fukuoka.
If Rylov cheers up, then the Russian team will have a trio of superstars ready to show stable results: Evgeny himself, Evgenia Chikunova and Kliment Kolesnikov. There are no other leaders in sight. Therefore, it is not worth hoping that the results of our swimmers will increase considerably.
Of course, I would like to be wrong. But of the 37 sets of medals in the Olympic program, subject to admission, you can count on three or four awards, taking into account the fact that there will be no guaranteed gold for Kolesnikov at fifty dollars on his back: this distance is not included in the olympic program
evgeny rylov
Photo: RIA Novosti
And who became the hero of the World Cup – 2023?
In general, a classy world championship was held in Japan, where new stars shone and world records fell.
Chinese Qin Haiyan was the first in swimming history to win the breaststroke in one tournament: 50, 100 and 200 m, although each distance requires fundamentally different training. British breaststroke genius Adam Peaty decided to miss out on the tournament, while Frenchman Léon Marchand withdrew from the 200m due to an unfortunate schedule. Maybe they would be more interesting.
Marchand himself bombarded Michael Phelps’ incredible record in the 400-meter complex, shooting over a second and a half. And also, he did not leave anyone the opportunity for the 200-meter complex and the 200-meter butterfly.
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Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström concentrated only on freestyle and fifty dollar butterfly and simply tore her opponents to pieces. Australian Kaley McKeown took all the distances on her back. American Kathy Ledecky won the 800 m and 1500 m and she surpassed Michael Phelps in the number of individual gold medals at the world championships. And 16-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh is just one star who will still gain experience and be strong overall at all distances.
As for the number of prizes in the Fukuoka basin, there was no equal for the Australians. The Americans, who sent a fairly young team to Japan, are second, the Chinese are third. There is exactly one year to go before the Olympic Games in Paris.
