By Maria Dobysheva
Katinka Hosszu celebrated five victories at annual Salnikov Cup in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
She won 100 and 200 back, 200 IM, 200 fly and 400 free.
In 200 backstroke prelims, Hosszu went sub- 2:00, set new meet record and got top seed with 1:59.23. In the finals, she easily won gold (2:00.44) over Russian young backstroker Daria K Ustinova (2:04.75). Irina Prikhodko got bronze with 2:06.71.
In 100 backstroke, Olympic medalist Anastasia Fesikova joined Ustinova in attempt to gain gold in front of local fans but Hosszu touched the wall first with 57.20, left Ustinova (57.78) and Fesikova (58.20} behind her.
“I don’t feel quite good in short water,” Ustinova says. “Hope I’ll be much closer to [Hosszu] results when I’ll be at my peak and long course”.
In 200 butterfly, Hosszu and her countrywoman SZILAGYI Liliana went 1-2 (2:05.39, 2:06.80). Svetlana Chimrova (RUS) was third, 2:09.61.
Another win Hosszu achieved was 200 IM – one of her main events – where she went 2:08.36. This result might be far from her season’s best (she posted 2:02.53 to win golds at European short course Championships early December), it still was one and a half second ahead of others. Victoria Andreeva (RUS) got silver (2:09.82) and Anna Dzerkal (UKR) got bronze, 2:11.03.
Last Hosszu’s win of the meet was 400 free. It was her third event of the night which she won with 4:06.33. She was almost caught up by Russia’s Arina Opyonysheva (4:06.85) but managed to hold the lead. Yulia Snoz came in third with 4:07.71.
Hosszu also swam 200 breast but came in last. Three medalists put up a great battle which ended up with Russia’s Darya Chikunova win (2:23.73), her teammate Maria Astashkina touched second (2:23.75) and Dzerkal from Ukraine got third, 2:23.86.
When all Hosszu’s multi-events program was completed, she headed to a “Christmas corner” where she easily was mobbed with kids and spent some time with them chatting, taking selfies and signing their christmas stuff.
Breakthrough of the year Evgeny Rylov won 100 and 200 backstroke. Bronze medalist of Kazan World Championships, posted world’s top times in both events. Rylov, who skipped European Championships due to Olympic preparation, elected to perform at Salnikov Cup. He went 1:49.80 in 200 backstroke’s final and was only fifth swimmer in the world to go under 1:50.00 this season. This time ranked Rylov 4th in FINA list. Germany’s Christian Diener got silver with 1:51.63 and Andrey Shabasov was third, 1:52.22.
Another impressive win by Rylov was 100 back, 50.34. Even though Evgeny couldn’t went sub- 0.50, he posted world’s fifth-best time this season. Only one swimmer of the team Russia was faster than Rylov this season – Stanislav Donets with 50.30 from European Championships, who didn’t participate in Salnikov Cup. It was a close race with Andrey Shabasov for silver 50.64 and Australia’s Bobby Hurley for bronze – 50.72.
“I had a goal for this meet, go 50.0 low in 100 backstroke and couldn’t make it. But I’m glad I was able to beat such a strong rival as Rober Hurley from Australia, – said Rylov. I wanted to skip the whole short course season so I guess I should say it still was a decent swims”.
Rylov didn’t start in the 50 backstroke. AUS Bobby Hurley won the gold in the close race with 23.63, with Germany’s Diener second (23.68) and Belarus’ Pavel Sankovich for bronze (23.70).
Alexandra Gerasimenya representing Belarus was among meet’s multimedalists with three golds and two silvers. Two-time silver medalist in London, Gerasimenya won 50 back, 100 freestyle and 4×100 mixed medley with team Belarus. She also came in second in 50 freestyle and got silver with her team in the 4×100 mixed free.
In 50 back, Alexandra surprisingly beat Ustinova, 26.89 to 27.06. Maria Kameneva left third, 27.12.
In one of her best events, 100 free, Gerasimenya celebrated victory with 52.66. This results is 0.4 shy of her season’s best she posted at BLR Nationals in November. Russia’s Veronika Popova challenged Gerasimenya for gold and posted the better seconf half (27.02 against 27.36 by Alexandra) but ended up second, 52.87. Natalia Lovtsova finished third, 54.37.
In the 4×50 medley, Gerasimenya went anchor and was able to hold team Belarus’ lead against others, set the best women’s split – 23.45. Belarus won with 1:39.25, while silver medalist team Saint Petersburg left one second behind (1:40.35).
Evgeny Sedov who made splash at European Championships where he posted worlds best time in 50 free (20.71), celebrated victory in his main event. Sedov was the fastest short course swimmer this season, has gone sub-21.0 three times. Many expected him to break that barrier again but he satisfied with 21.09 for the victory (which technically ties him for fifth with his teammate Vladimir Morozov).
Alexander Fesikov was second (21.09) and Alexander Klyukin third, 21.67.
In one of his interviews Sedov said he was going to try 100 free at Salnikov Cup. Sedov recovered from injury which left him without World Championships and this short course season might be called his comeback. Eventually, Sedov felt he wasn’t ready enough to swim a hundered. Sergey Fesikov won the event with 47.64, touched out Nikita Konovalov (47.79) and Alexander Klyukin (47.88).
Saint-Petersburg’ raised Veronika Popova, representing her hometown in front of domestic audience, won 200 freestyle with 1:54.32, a result within worlds top 10. Popova’s best season time was third ranked 1:52.53 at European Championships in Israel. Veronika pleased her fans with a gold medal, over Andreeva (1:55.12) and Darya Mullakaeva (1:56.67).
Kirill Prigoda had his hands on the wall first in the 100 and 50 breaststroke.
In the 100 breast Prigoda set 57.43, ahead of Dmitry Balandin (58.31) and Vyatcheslav Sinkevich (58.37). In the 50, Prigoda won close race with 26.38 which apparently happened to be fourth season’s best in the world. Andrey Nikolaev (26.55) and Igor Golovin (26.69) completed the podium.
Vyatcheslav Sinkevich won 200 breast (2:04.44) over World Junior record holder Anton Chupkov (2:05.11) and Dmitry Balandin (2:05.66)
Full results can be found here