Silver Kostina, the best time Efimova and the defeat of water polo players: the results of the 11th day of the World Championships in water sports

"I have Soviet nightstands, so I work off the start at competitions"

On Monday, July 22, four finals took place at the World Championships in South Korea as part of the swimming tournament. Unfortunately, the Russians managed to win a medal in just one form. Oleg Kostin pleased the fans at a distance of 50 meters butterfly. A native of Nizhny Novgorod gave way only to American Kaleb Dressel and for the first time in his career he won an award at the World Cup.

After the final swim, Kostin spoke about the reasons for his defeat and criticized the conditions in which he has to train.

“What is the phenomenon of Dressel? Rather, it's just a matter of me: I work at this distance only for the fourth year. Plus, I do not have such opportunities for training, there are no such modern nightstands to train the start. I have Soviet nightstands, so I work out the starts either at the training camp, or already at the competitions themselves, ”the TASS swimmer quotes.

“For“ fifty kopeks ”this is very important: if you win the start, you win and swim. I will start with two legs, and if I put Dressel in the same conditions, I think I would have died with him, ”Kostin added.

The Russian also expressed the hope that the 50 m butterfly stroke will be included in the program of the Olympic Games, and he will be able to speak at it at the OI-2028 in Los Angeles.

Other Russian swimmers on Monday performed less successfully. At the 100m breaststroke distance there was no Briton Adam Petey. Even in the qualifying heat, the Olympic champion set a new world record (56.88 seconds), improving his own achievement.

In the final, the Briton more than a second ahead of compatriot James Wilby. The best of the Russians was Kirill Prigoda, who showed the fifth result (+1.95). And Olympic medalist Anton Chupkov finished last (+2.05).

“Naturally, Petey's record was expected. He came in good shape to the World Cup, and his achievement was not at all surprised. For several years in a row, this distance remains for Adam, the last ten best results are his, ”said Chupkov.

In women, Russians have not made their way into decisive heats at all. However, even without them there were enough interesting events in the finals. So at a distance of 200 m complex representative of Hungary Katinka Hossu for the fourth time in a row won the world championships. And in the 100m butterfly, the first place was taken by the Canadian Margaret McNeil.

Russian fans pleased fans Yulia Efimova. At the favorite 100m breaststroke distance she reached the final with the best result - 1 minute 5.56 seconds. In turn, Daria Vaskina made her way to the decisive 100m backstroke, and Martin Malyutin did the same with the 200m complex.

19-year-old Kliment Kolesnikov failed to reach the final at a distance of 100 m on the back, although in this form he became the champion of Europe last year.

"The most poor coaches" and "not serious complaints"

The Russian water polo players suffered a bad luck on Monday. In the quarterfinals, they failed to break the resistance of Australia and left the tournament. The first quarter ended with a minimum advantage of the representatives of the Green Continent - 2: 1, and in the second they managed to bring it to three goals. The Russians did not give up and managed to get closer to the rivals in the long run, but the miracle did not happen. At the crucial moments of the Australian turned out to be stronger and celebrated the logical victory - 9: 7.

After the match, a serious scandal suddenly flared up around the national team. The team mentors Alexander Gaidukov and Andrey Belofast said they are ready to give up their posts, and also noted that they “receive pennies”.

“Gaidukov and I are constantly working under pressure; we have agreements with the Ministry of Sport extended by three or six months. If they do not trust us, then why put us up and offer an agreement for such a deadline. At the same time we get a penny, so we can leave a place, take it. Because the rate is very small, it is even disrespect. We are the poorest coaches, ”said Belofastov.

In response, the head of the Russian Water Polo Federation, Alexei Vlasenko, said that coaches are not behaving seriously.

“They receive the basic salary for work in professional clubs, and in the Russian team they are on the basis of the Center for Sports Training. They have big salaries in clubs, so it’s not serious to complain, ”the functionary said.

Only one award won further alienated Russia from China in the medal standings of the tournament. In the asset go to the second place of domestic athletes 16 awards, of which nine - gold, six - silver and one - bronze. On account of athletes from the Middle Kingdom 26 medals (14-10-2).