RSCSC2016: St Petersburg’s swimmers top podium in medley relays on day 1

The first medley relay medals were contested today at the Russian Short Course Swimming Championships in Kazan. Both races – women’s 4x200m freestyle and men’s 4x100m freestyle relays – were dominated by swimmers from Saint Petersburg.

The women’s relay team from Saint Petersburg won the 4x200m freestyle event. Veronika Popova, Daria Ustinova, Yulia Snoz and Polina Retyunskaya finished the race with 7.47,82. Anastasia Kirpichnikova, Valeria Salamatina, Daria Ustinova and Polina Lapshina of the Sverdlovsk Oblast placed second (7.50,91). Daria Mullakaeva, Ekaterina Sorokina, Varvara Simonova and Maria Baklakova of the Perm Krai settled for bronze (7.58,14).

The St Petersburg men’s relay team topped the podium in the 4x100m freestyle event. Oleg Tikhobaev, Alexander Popkov, Evgeny Lagunov and Kirill Prigoda clocked 3.9,81. Moscow’s Kilment Kolesnikov, Vladislav Grinev, Artyom Lobuzov and Mikhail Polischuk ended up second 3.11,86. Ivan Rybkin, Alexey Amosov, Nikita Maksimov and Andrey Arbuzov of the Kranoyarsk Krai showed the third-best time (3.12,50). The Tatarstan team finished only 7th.

In the women’s 400m individual medley, Moscow’s Alexandra Maslova set the national junior record covering the distance in 4.38,42.

Varvara Simonova of the Perm Krai placed second (4.39,60) whereas Kristina Vershinina (Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District) finished with the third-best time, 4.39,64. The world champion Anastasia Ivanenko missed out on a podium spot touching the wall .04 seconds behind the third-place finisher.