The Russian Short Course Championships ended after six days of racing in St Petersburg with titles claimed and Beijing selections locked in.
Arina Surkova added the women’s 50 free title to her 50 fly gold as the only woman inside 24secs in 23.82. Alina Gafutdinova and Alexandra Kurilkova shared silver in 24.01 to both go inside the cut for the short-course worlds in Beijing next month. It was a third medal for the former who also won 50 back gold and 100 free bronze.
Egor Proshin and Egor Yurchenko dead-heated in the men’s event in 21.27 although they were outside the 21.19 QT. It was a second title for Proshin who also claimed the 100 gold.
Evgeniia Chikunova just missed a clean sweep of the breaststroke events as Ralina Gilyazova took the 50 in 29.66. Chikunova was next home in 30.08.
Oleg Kostin won the men’s 50 breast in 25.62 ahead of Kirill Prigoda (25.71) and Ivan Kozhakin (25.92) with all three inside the Beijing QT.
Fifteen-year-old Sofia Molchanova cut almost three seconds off her 200 back PB to take the title in 2:05.24. Darya Ustinova was also inside the cut.
The men’s 200m back saw Georgey Smirnov posted 1:49.17 to establish a huge new lifetime best by two seconds.
Milana Stepanova and Ivan Grinev were the respective winners in the 200 free in 1:55.07 and 1:42.60.
