Four Men Earn First Olympic Berth On Opening Day of Russian Trials

2021 RUSSIAN NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• April 3-9, 2021
• Palace of Water Sports, Kazan, Russia
• Prelims: 9:00 am local/2:00 am Eastern, Finals: 6:00 pm local/11:00 am Eastern
• LCM (50m)
• Russian Olympic Qualification Procedures
• Meet Central
• Start Lists/Results
• Live Stream (YouTube channel)

Four male swimmers put their name on Russia’s 2021 Olympic team on the opening day of their national trials in Kazan, with all four being first-time Olympians.

The first qualifying event of the meet was the men’s 400 IM, where 18-year-old Ilya Borodin reset both his National and World Junior Records in a time of 4:11.17 to earn a spot on the team.

Borodin, the 2019 World Junior Championship silver medalist in the event, now ranks second in the world this season.

Placing second in the event was 20-year-old Maxim Stupin, who took a second off his best time in 4:14.20 to easily clear the FINA ‘A’ cut of 4:15.84 and earn his first Olympic berth.

The next Olympic qualifying event came in the men’s 400 free, where Martin Malyutin produced a massive negative-split to run down Alexander Egorov and win the event in 3:45.92, with Egorov the runner-up in 3:46.17. Both set new best times to get well under the ‘A’ cut of 3:46.78.

Aleksandr Krasnykh, a 2016 Olympic finalist in the 200 free who also raced the 400 in Rio, ended up placing fifth in 3:50.79.

The only other event where Olympic qualification was on the line tonight was in the women’s 400 IM. And while 16-year-old Anastasia Sorokina was well off the ‘A’ standard of 4:38.53, her time of 4:43.44 did break a longstanding national youth record from 1984.

RUSSIAN OLYMPIC TEAM (THRU DAY 1)