HERNING, Denmark, December 13. RUSSIA provided the second world record of the evening at the European Short Course Championships as Vitaly Melnikov (23.70), Yuliya Efimova (28.39), Svetlana Chimrova (25.29) and Vlad Morozov (20.25) raced to a 1:37.63. That swim beat the unified world record of 1:37.84 set by Australia on the Tokyo stop of the FINA World Cup circuit.
There’s been much talk about the 200-meter medley relays, especially the single-gender events, and how many “world records” will be set in the events since FINA first began recognizing them this September. The mixed events, however, don’t have as much controversy as the FINA World Cup swimmers nearly unified both the world record and standing world bests this fall. The mixed medley relay is the one that is completely unified, and Russia now stands on top of that mountain.
Germany’s Christian Diener (23.44), Caroline Ruhnau (29.96), Steffen Deibler (21.93) and Dorothea Brandt (23.99) took second in 1:39.32, while Czech’s Simona Baumrtova (25.99), Petr Bartunek (26.55), Lucie Svecena (25.83) and Tomas Plevko (21.17) took third in 1:39.54.
Italy (1:39.68), Great Britain (1:39.81), Hungary (1:39.86), France (1:39.91), Ukraine (1:40.18), Belarus (1:40.19) and Slovenia (1:41.52) also battled in the finale.