Freestyle

The final in men's 200m freestyle swimming can be considered the strongest swim of the Russian championship so far.

The fact that several swimmers would qualify for two tickets to the Olympics at once was clear even before the start of the competition.

The fans were more worried about how many athletes would fulfill the standard so that they could talk about the fight for gold in the relay.

The required seconds were exceeded by six people at once.

The best of the best was Martin Malyutin.

He set a personal record with a score of 1: 45.18 - this time exceeds that which could have brought silver at the last World Championship, where Malyutin was a bronze medalist.

But if his victory was largely predictable, then Ivan Girev's second place was a small sensation.

The 20-year-old athlete swam slightly worse than in the semifinals, but still got the right to compete not only for a relay medal at the Olympics, but also for a personal one.

The standard was also fulfilled by Alexander Shchegolev, Alexander Krasnykh, Daniil Shatalov and Mikhail Dovgalyuk - places in the team are now also provided for them.

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For Malyutin, the victory at the 200-meter mark was already his second in Kazan.

On the first day, he already won gold at a distance twice as long and at the same time won a place in the national team with a result of 3: 45.92.

True, on the world stage, these seconds are not quoted so high and are unlikely to bring a medal to Tokyo.

The same can be said about the time of Alexander Yegorov, who took second place (3: 46,17).

But the results of the girls in the 400 meters were more interesting.

Anna Egorova took first place, swimming the distance in 4: 04.10 - she dropped almost two seconds from the previous Russian record.

Even the American Katie Ledecchi did not swim so fast this season.

So far, only the Chinese swimmer Wang Jianjiahe managed to surpass the result of the Russians.

After Yegorova finished Anastasia Kirpichnikova, whose main specialization is swimming in open water.

She was able to meet the standard for the Olympics, so that Russia will have two athletes in the 400-meter freestyle for the first time since 2000.

The former holder of a record in this discipline, Veronika Andrusenko, this time showed herself at a distance of 200 meters.

True, her time was not enough to get into the team.

It lost 0.69 seconds to the established standard.

Kirpichenkova will also perform in the pool at the longest 1,500-meter distance, in which women will compete for Olympic medals for the first time.

She confidently stormed the 16-minute line and surpassed it by almost a second.

Such a result automatically makes any athlete a contender for a prize.

On the back 

The most intriguing competition in Kazan was the men's 100-meter backstroke.

The duel between Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov, which was supposed to become the decoration of the championship, fully met expectations.

Already in the preliminary heats, a rare phenomenon for swimming occurred - Kolesnikov repeated the Russian record, showing a time of 52.44 seconds.

In the semifinals, he dropped two hundredths of a second from his result, while Rylov held right behind him in second position.

In the final, the two swimmers changed places.

Rylov swam in 52.12 seconds and regained his national achievement.

Kolesnikov, who had previously won gold in the 50 meters, was also faster than himself, but finished second with a result of 52.24 seconds.

With this performance, the 20-year-old swimmer entered his name in the top ten fastest at this distance.

Rylov takes fourth place in this rating (the time of 51.97 seconds was shown to him in the relay and therefore is not a Russian record).

At the same time, both are the absolute leaders of this season, so they naturally became part of the Olympic team.

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Wrestling in a similar female discipline turned out to be no less beautiful.

The main favorite was considered Maria Kameneva, who managed to swim twice from one minute before the final.

The main question was who will take second place - veteran Anastasia Fesikova or 18-year-old Daria Vaskina.

As a result, Fesikova got the second ticket after Kameneva, who won with a result of 59.19 seconds.

She will go to her fourth Olympics and become the oldest swimmer in Russian history.

By the time of the start in Tokyo, she will be 31 years old, but at the same time, her time of 59.51 seconds allows her to count on at least reaching the final.

Breaststroke 

The women's breaststroke routinely delighted with phenomenal results, as well as a sensational champion.

In the final of the 100-meter, three athletes were expected to fight at once - the current vice-champion of the Olympic Games and the World Championship Yulia Efimova, the incredibly gifted Svetlana Chikunova and the naturalized Briton Tatiana Belonogoff.

Before the decisive swim, they were separated by less than half a second, and all exceeded the standard required to get to the Olympic Games.

Gold eventually went to 16-year-old Chikunova.

She swam in 1: 06.06 and by two hundredths of a second exceeded Yefimova's Russian youth record, which was once the best time in Europe.

The 29-year-old swimmer herself became the second, losing only 0.16 seconds - both performed at the level of the top three of the last world championship.

Belonogoff, Maria Temnikova and Nika Godun sailed out of 1:07 and met the standard, but remained outside the national team.

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The leader of the men's national breaststroke team, Anton Chupkov, made him worry about himself.

He reached the final of the 100-meter only with the third time behind Kirill Prigoda and Alexander Palatov, risking missing the Olympic medals in this discipline for the second time in a row.

In the decisive swim, Chupkov also went third at first, but was able to rise to the second line.

Its time was 59.47 seconds, which is 0.36 seconds worse than the results of Prigoda.

Butterfly

In the butterfly, the results of Russian swimmers are not yet as encouraging as in other types of swimming.

In the first half of the competition, medals and places in the national team were played in the men's 200-meter and women's 100 meters.

Arina Surkova and Svetlana Chimrova were able to join the team.

They both emerged in 58 seconds, but that would not be enough for the fight for the awards in Tokyo.

Two years ago, at the World Championships in Gwangju, such indicators might not be enough even to reach the final.

For men, only Alexander Kudashev passed the selection.

He swam 200 meters butterfly in 1: 55.40.

The champion of the Summer Universiade could have become the sixth with such a time at the championship of the planet, where Russia did not have its representatives in this discipline at all.