At the 2013 FINA European Short Course World Championships, it was the swimmers who hailed from Russia that stole the much of the spotlight. As a team, Russia won the meet with a total of 13 gold medals; the next country to come even close to that was Hungary with 5. Seven golds came from the sprint machine, Vladimir Morozov and another three from Yuliya Efimova.
With all the fast swimming surrounding Russia’s top athletes, the younger swimmers made a statement for themselves at a meet in Volgograd. The two frontrunners of the meet, Yevgeny Sedov and Alina Kendzior, set meet records and as well claiming multiple titles. Sedov, who scored the most FINA points at 809, also set a new Russian junior record in the 50 m backstroke at 24.26. Kendzior swam a quick 4:41.18 in the 400 IM to claim the rights to her new Russian junior record. With results like this Vladimir Salnikov stated, “we have set a very high bar for ourselves for the future. There are new names to our team and we were very confident in their performances”.
However, despite their obvious success at Euros both see room for improvement in their races. Morozov was “aiming for a world record in the 100 but with a mistake in the first fifty meters there was no way to recover and no way for there to be a record”.
Yuliya Efimova erased Rebecca Soni’s name form the record books; that’s the third time this year by three different women. Efimova put up another world record for Russia, swimming a 2:14.39 in the finals. In addition to her WR, Efimova also threw down three championship records while on her way to claiming gold in the 50 SCM breastroke. With results like these, Efimova confidently thinks “it’s only a matter of time before [she] breaks the world record in the 100”.
With the Russian national team finishing off a successful weekend at Euros, the Salnikov proved to be even better. With the meet being held in their home country, the Russians did not disappoint the home crowd. Even with a star studded field including Katinka Hosszu and Sarah Sjostrom, Efimova made a statement in the 50 breastroke by almost resetting her own World Record by swimming a 28.77. Not only did she prove her point in the 50 but showed her versatility by setting a Russian national record in the 100 IM touching the wall at 59.19.
With two big weekends of swimming behind them, the Russians proved to the rest of the swimming world that they’ll be a force to reckon with in the future.
The europeans in the Salnikov Cup would form a better team than those in ” Duel in pool”. Russia has by far the strongest european team ( both senior and junior ) and Hosszu, Sjoestrom etc, were also missed in Scotland.
Sedov -47.21 100m fr in semi – 47.41 -final