Ilya Borodin Climbs To #3 In World Rankings With 4:09.59 400 IM On Day 5 Of Russian Champs

2024 RUSSIAN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• April 14-19, 2024
• Kazan, Russia
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Live Results
• Livestream
• Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Recap
• Day 3 Recap
• Day 4 Recap

The penultimate day of the 2024 Russian Swimming Championships took place on Thursday, and finals of four individual events were on the schedule. Medals were awarded for the men’s 400 IM, men’s 50 butterfly, women’s 100 backstroke, and men’s 1500 freestyle with semifinals of the men’s 100 freestyle, women’s 50 freestyle, men’s 50 breaststroke, and women’s 100 butterfly also taking place.

After securing gold in the 200 IM earlier this week, Ilya Borodin completed his sweep of the IMs with a gold in the 400m distance. The 21-year-old put his hand on wall in a time of 4:09.59 to clear the field by nearly three seconds. He was about 1.5 seconds shy of his career-best 4:08.05 from July of 2022, but he was faster than Lewis Clareburt‘s winning time from the 2024 World Championships (4:09.72).

Borodin now ranks 3rd in the world so far this season, trailing only Team GB’s Max Litchfield (4:09.14) and Italy’s Alberto Razzetti (4:09.29). Borodin opened his race with a strong 55.80 fly split before hitting 1:04.36 on back, 1:10.59 on breast, and 58.84 on free.

The men’s 50 fly saw a tight battle unfold for the gold medal, where two swimmers dipped under the elusive 23-second barrier. Roman Shevlyakov was able to hold his top seed from finals and fend off a charge from Andrei Minakov. Shevlyakov punched a final time of 22.92 to match his semifinal time down to the hundredth. Minakov, who busted out his 2nd fastest ever 100 fly on Tuesday, posted a new lifetime best of 22.97 for silver. Minakov’s previous best time rested at the 23.02 that he produced back in 2021.

After representing the sole backstroker under 1-minute in the semifinals, Maria Kameneva took the same honor tonight. She notched a final time of 59.43 to win the Russian title by over a second. She flipped through the first 50m in 29.14 before closing in 30.29, which was almost identical to her semifinals splits: 29.16/30.32. The 24-year-old won the 50 back on Monday in 27.83, although she was faster (27.73) during the semifinals on Sunday. Kameneva holds the Russian record in the 50 free and semifinals of that event took place later in the session.

In the aforementioned 50 free semifinals, Kameneva backed up well about an hour later after her gold medal-winning 100 back. She recorded a time of 24.57 to qualify 2nd for Friday’s final, where she will have the chance to claim her 3rd Russian title of the meet. Her Russian record of 24.20 was set at this same competition back in April of 2021.

It was Arina Surkova (24.34) who earned lane four for tomorrow’s final, and she sits just 0.14 outside Kameneva’s 3-year-old Russian standard. This wasn’t her first race of the night though, as she also put up a time of 57.95 to qualify 1st for the 100 fly final. The 25-year-old’s 50 free performance represents a new lifetime best, as she obliterated her old time of 24.50. She’s been as quick as 57.54 in the 100m fly event.

As a refresher, she threw down a 25.39 in the women’s 50 fly on Wednesday to win her first gold of the meet. It was just outside her national record (25.30) from April of 2023.

The men’s 100 free semifinals were nothing short of deep, as four swimmers swam 48.3 or faster. 2004-born Egor Kornev (48.09) leads the way into tomorrow’s final with Kliment Kolesnikov (48.11), Andrei Minakov (48.16), and Vladislav Grinev (48.34) sitting close behind.

All four of those swimmers have swum under 48-seconds before, with Kornev already doing so earlier this week. His best time comes from night one, where he helped St. Petersburg win the 4×100 free relay gold medal with a 47.87 lead-off split. Kolesnikov’s best is 47.11, Minakov’s is 47.57, and Grinev has been as quick as 47.43.

Other Results:

• Andrei Nikolaev (26.90), Ivan Kozhakin (26.93), and Maxim Trotsenko (26.98) all checked-in under 27-seconds in the men’s 50 breast semifinals. 200 breast winner Kirill Prigoda (27.34) is lurking in 4th position as tomorrow’s final approaches.
• 15-year-old Ksenia Misharina picked up her second distance free win of the meet. She hit the wall in 16:06.09 in the 1500 to add to her 800 win (8:29.05) earlier in the meet. She broke through in a big way last April with three Russian Youth records.