RSCSC2016: Tatarstan's Alexander Krasnykh earns tournament's first gold

Tatarstan representative and participant of the Rio Olympic Games, Alexander Krasnykh, won the first final on the opening day of the Russian Short Course Swimming Championships in Kazan. The Bugulma native was unbeatable in the men's 200m freestyle event with 1:42.50. Moscow's Mikhail Dovgalyuk placed second (1:43.55), Mikhail Vekovischev of the Kaluga Oblast clocked the third best time (1:43.58).

"We haven't been training specifically for the national tournament, as you know there is only one month left until the world championships. I've been gearing up specifically for the worlds," the swimmer admitted after the final.

But the winner was not happy with his result. "I've lost the zonal stage. Due to this it was hard for me to swim today. During the zonal stage I was not fully ready; I distributed my strength wrongly and overleapt myself. And today I didn't show my best performance. I didn't meet any challenge last year too but I had a better result. A year is gone and my results should have improved. It looks like we haven't been training well, maybe it's because I have been focusing on the worlds."

Alexander Krasnykh admitted that it's extremely difficult to embark on a new post-Olympic cycle, first of all in terms of psychological readiness. "I did my best to make it to short course swimming because I like it. But all in all it's really difficult to pull oneself together and to start training again. The Olympics are an emotionally devastating event. Not physically but emotionally. And I haven't fully recovered yet."

In the second final of the opening day - women's 200m butterfly event - Moscow's Svetlana Chimrova grabbed gold with the new national record (2:06.21). Anastasia Guzhenkova of the Samara Oblast ended up second with Ekaterina Lvova (Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District) rounding out the podium in third (2:11.55).