Did not meet the standard: which of the Russians will go to the Swimming World Cup in Singapore

The national swimming Championship has ended in Kazan, which is also the main qualifying tournament for Russian swimmers for the world championships in Singapore. The selection principles were formulated in advance — in order to get a ticket to the World Cup, it was necessary to enter the top two in the final and meet the qualification standards. Moreover, they were higher in most disciplines than those in World Aquatics. This sparked discussions about the appropriateness of such a step. The controversy intensified when the long—term leader of the national team, Yulia Yefimova, became the "victim" of this condition - in Kazan she took two silver medals, but both times she did not meet the standard. Our star spin player, Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov, is not going to Singapore either — he became only the fourth in the 200 meters in the Czech Republic.

A surprise from Antipov, Lifintsev without gold

The Russian Swimming Championships in Kazan took place against the background of heated discussions about how well the Russian Federation of Aquatics Sports (RVVSR) acted by setting very strict standards, only after meeting which swimmers could qualify for the 2025 World Championships in Singapore.

On the one hand, the logic of such a decision is clear — none of the serious teams wants to bring "passengers" to the competition, people who will not be able to fight at least for reaching the finals. For example, in athletics, the French also need to show results higher than those set by the international federation in some disciplines in order to qualify for the World Championships in Tokyo.

However, this explanation is not exhaustive — the world's largest tournaments, in addition to drawing awards, also provide invaluable experience that an athlete can use in the future when he is ready to compete for medals. Among other things, the decision of the World Sports Federation has led to the fact that many fairly strong athletes will not go to Singapore.

As a result, the federation's strict criteria (1st or 2nd place at the Russian Championships and meeting the FVVRS standard) were fulfilled by 25 people in individual sports and five more in relay races (see the full list at the end of the material). But despite the fact that they have qualified for specific distances, they will be able to swim in other disciplines in Singapore, the main thing is that the qualification standard set by World Aquatics is met.

An example is Evgenia Chikunova. She fulfilled the conditions of the FVVSR in the 100 and 200 meters breaststroke, however, she did not seem to pass the 50 meters (the standard was 30.45 seconds). But, since Evgenia has a score of 30.72 in the final, which is faster than the 30.75 standard set by World Aquatics, she will be able to apply for this distance if such a decision is made. Thus, for some athletes who have been selected through one discipline, others are open, for which they pass according to World Aquatics standards.

If we look at the performance of individual athletes in Kazan, Kirill Prigozhda can certainly be considered the most successful — four gold medals in all breaststroke distances, from 50 to 200 meters, and another gold in the 4x100 meters combined relay.

Daria Klepikova, Alexandra Kuznetsova, Evgenia Chikunova and Egor Kornev each won three gold medals, while Alina Gayfutdinova, Sofya Dyakova, Daria Sirushkina, Svetlana Chmirova, Ilya Borodin, Mikhail Dovgalyuk, Alexander Stepanov, Kliment Kolesnikov, Vasily Kukushkin and Alexander Shchegolev each won two.

But these are medals, not results. Kuznetsova, with her three gold awards, did not qualify for the personal World Cup program — two of the medals were relay medals, and Alexandra did not meet the FVVSR standard in the 50 m freestyle. Her final score is 24.80, which meets the criteria of World Aquatics (24.86), but not the Russian (24.72). As a result, Kuznetsova was only included in the relay.

Speaking specifically about the results, Mikhail Antipov presented a very big surprise in the 100 m butterfly, second only to the Russian record holder Andrei Minakov. In the final, Antipov swam in 51.25, beating Roman Shevlyakov by three hundredths of a second, fulfilled the selection criteria (51.51) and won a ticket to the World Championships.

Minakov's result, in principle, needs no explanation. Andrey broke his own national record of 2019 (50.83) by one hundredth. Another question is that the World Cup medalists will almost certainly come out of 50.50 — two years ago, the podium closed with a score of 50.46, and at the Olympic Games in Paris — 50.45.

The results of the men's backstroke competition speak for themselves — Kolesnikov and Lifintsev showed in the final the two best results of the season in the world, 52.04 and 52.15, and for Miron this distance was the only one in the Czech Republic where he got into the coveted two, giving the right to the World Cup – he was third in 50 meters and did not pass.

If we talk about failures in the Czech Republic, Lifintsev's performance cannot be called such, but, most likely, the athlete himself expected slightly different results from the tournament in Kazan. The hero of the recent World Short Course Championships in Budapest went home without his personal gold. Unfortunately, our other star spin player, Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov, who finished fourth in the 200-meter backstroke in Kazan, did not qualify for the 2025 World Cup.

The end of the Yefimova Era

Of course, we need to evaluate Yulia Yefimova's performance separately. The famous swimmer immediately said that she considered the fifty breaststroke as the most likely discipline for selection. As a result, it was silver, but without meeting the FVVSR standard. It was 30.45, and Yulia's score was 30.83. Efimova was second in the 100—meter breaststroke - 1.06.88, but again without the standard, which is 1.06.69.

Thus, it turns out that only Evgenia Chikunova will go to the breaststroke World Cup, which will cover not only personal types of programs there, which is logical, but also relay races, where Efimova could relieve Evgenia a little. But criteria are criteria.

Of course, there is a temptation to take the same Efimova by the decision of the coaching council, bypassing the criteria — she is the second after Chikunova in two distances. But, firstly, there is not a word in the text of the selection regulations about the decision of the coaching council, it immediately says in the first paragraph: "A prerequisite for the selection system proposed below for the participation of athletes in the World Aquatics Championships is the fulfillment of the qualification standard established by the World Olympic Committee." Secondly, by making such a decision, the federation will open a Pandora's box. After all, not only Efimova was just a little short of the standard, there are others - you will have to make a decision on them. This has already happened in other sports, and it has not led to anything good.

The introduction of its own, separate standards as a whole looks doubtful. Yes, it's proud and brave, but if you don't have the money, you need to say so, honestly — Singapore is far away, sorry, we are ready to take only those who entered the top two in the Czech Republic and fulfilled the standard. There is no standard of ours, but there is gold or silver of the Czech Republic and an international standard — you can go at your own expense. If Efimov finds the money, let him act. If he wins a medal, he will issue a bill to the FVVSR...

Swimmers who won the right to compete at the 2025 World Cup

Personal types of program

Women

Alina Gayfutdinova — 100 m backstroke
Sofia Dyakova — 400 and 800 m freestyle
Daria Zarubenkova — 200 m backstroke
Daria Klepikova — 100 m freestyle
Ksenia Misharina — 800 and 1500 m freestyle
Maria Osetrova — 50 m butterfly
Milana Stepanova — 200 m backstroke
Arina Surkova — 50 m butterfly
Daria Trofimova — 100 m freestyle
Evgenia Chikunova — 100 and 200 m breaststroke

Men

Mikhail Antipov — 100 m butterfly
Ilya Borodin — 400 m complex
Alexander Zhigalov — 200 m breaststroke
Ivan Kozhakin — 50 m breaststroke
Kliment Kolesnikov — 50 and 100 m backstroke, 50 m freestyle
Oleg Kostin — 50 butterfly
Egor Kornev — 50 and 100 m freestyle
Andrey Minakov — 100 m butterfly, 100 m freestyle
Miron Lifintsev — 100 m backstroke
Kirill Prigoda — 50, 100 and 200 m breaststroke
Dmitry Savenko — 200 m backstroke
Pavel Samusenko — 50 m backstroke
Danil Semyaninov — 100 m breaststroke
Maxim Stupin — 400 m complex
Egor Yurchenko — 50 m butterfly

Relay races

Anna Egorova, Alexandra Kuznetsova, Daria Surushkina, Vladislav Grinev, Ivan Girev.