Kolesnikov's victories and Rylov's refusal
The Russian national team won the medal standings of the European short course home championship, having won 11 victories and won 24 awards.
The most significant contribution to this success was made by Kliment Kolesnikov.
He won three golds in individual heats and climbed three more times to the podium in relay races.
The 21-year-old swimmer won his first award of the highest dignity at a distance of 50 meters.
In this form, he holds the world record in long water, so the Russian was ready to storm a better achievement in a 25-meter pool.
The attempt was almost successful - in the final Kolesnikov swam in 22.47 seconds.
He lost a quarter of a second to the record of Frenchman Florent Manad, but his result was the second in the history of this discipline.
At the same time, the athlete updated his own competition record set at the last European Championship.
Then Kolesnikov conquered those types of programs in which he won Olympic medals this summer. In the final of the 100-meter backstroke, he initially lost to Romanian Robert Glintsy, but managed to roll to the finish line and win a second victory. The Russian won the third victory again at the same distance, only in crawl swimming. Kolesnikov recorded a time of 45.58 seconds, which became his personal best. Vladislav Grinev won bronze in the same swim.
Until the last day, Kolesnikov also actively helped his partners in team competitions. In the combined men's 4x50 relay, he took over the backstroke and finished it in first place, but in the end the Russians lost to the Italians, who set the world record. In a similar mixed discipline, Kolesnikov even repeated his result shown in the personal final, but now it was enough for the final third place.
In the men's 4 × 50 m relay, Kolesnikov performed freestyle at the last stage, when it was obvious that he would only win bronze.
At the same time, he swam two pools in 20.45 seconds - this is a very good time, which would have allowed him to win a personal medal.
By the way, then two-time Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov also received bronze, but he did not win other awards.
He showed the best time in preliminary 200 meters backstroke, but refused to compete in the final due to poor health.
Disqualification in the relay
Kolesnikov could have had another silver medal in his assets, but the swimmer lost it in an annoying way.
Together with Vladimir Morozov, Arina Surkova and Maria Kameneva, he participated in the mixed relay 4x50 m freestyle.
The Russians shared the second place with Italy, yielding only to the Dutch quartet.
But nobody got their silver.
The Polish national team, which took the fourth position, drew attention to the violation of the regulations - in the start protocol, Morozov was declared the first number for the Russian team, and Kolesnikov performed at the starting stage.
A protest was filed, as a result of which the athletes who had confused the order were disqualified, and the Poles received an unplayed bronze.
Such a curious reason for canceling the results can be called extremely rare for a competition of this level.
Hat-trick of Kirpichnikova
Another heroine of the European Championship was Anastasia Kirpichnikova.
She also won three personal gold medals and for this she swam a total of 5400 meters.
Due to the fact that in the program of the women's competition she made her debut in the 1,500-meter swim, she was the first in history to be able to issue a stayer hat-trick at the three longest distances.
The main rival of Kirpichnikova was the bronze medalist of the Tokyo Olympics Simona Quadarella from Italy, who collected all the gold in the European championships since 2018.
But the 21-year-old Russian woman this time turned out to be stronger and did not leave any of her foreign rivals any chance.
Only Anna Egorova managed to impose a fight at the 400-meter distance, where they were separated by a little more than a second.
Particularly impressive was Kirpichnikova's performance at the new, longest distance.
In the final, she swam in 15: 18.30 and lost only 0.29 seconds to the world record of German Sarah Köhler.
If we translate this result into points and compare it with the performance of other girls, then it is Kirpichnikova who can be called the strongest swimmer of this European Championship.
Return of Borodin
One of the main intrigues of the competition in Kazan concerned Ilya Borodin's performance.
The talented 18-year-old swimmer was supposed to shine at the Tokyo Olympics but missed them due to a positive coronavirus test.
The European Championship gave him the opportunity to rehabilitate at least a little.
Borodin took advantage of his chance - at his favorite distance of 400 meters with a complex, he was the only one to swim out of four minutes.
His time of 3: 58.83 was the new junior world record, which he had already hit in the long pool several times.
Borodin's gold was also the first for Russian swimmers in this discipline at the European Championships.
In addition to him, a similar achievement was established by Svetlana Chimrova - her victory at a distance of 200 meters butterfly also became a debut for the entire national swimming.
Chikunova's record
For Evgenia Chikunova, junior world records are already something commonplace.
Before arriving in Kazan, she had already copied the highest achievement in the 200-meter breaststroke swim three times.
Another update took place now, when the 16-year-old Russian woman covered the distance in 2: 16.88.
By the way, this is the tenth time in history among adult athletes.
Much more important was the fact that for her result Chikunova received the first adult gold medal in official competitions.
The previous European champion Maria Temnikova lost more than one and a half seconds to the young swimmer, and the closest foreigner Francesca Fanjo from Italy - almost three.
Chikunova also became a silver medalist at a distance twice as short, sharing second place with 14-year-old Estonian Eneli Efimova.
Her famous namesake named Julia missed these starts due to the fact that they were not included in her individual plan for the end of the season.