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Russian Medley Men: 3:19.16 Shiny WR

Dec 20, 2009  - Craig Lord

Shiny suit world records last just hours these days. Even in a season of slaughter. the butchery continued apace at the Salnikov Cup in St Petersburg, where the Russian 4x100m medley quartet of Stanislav Donets, Sergey Geybel, Evgeny Korotyshkin and Danila Isotov clocked a heck of a short-course glide in 3:19.16. That was the 255th WR of the shiny suits era that will end when a ban on hyper-inflation on the clock comes into force on January 1.

That took out the 3:20.71 of Americans Nick Thoman (48.94wr leader) Mark Gangloff, Michael Phelps (in textile, so there's the impossible comparison right there) and Nathan Adrian at the Duel in Manchester on Friday last.

Korotyshkin swam the fly leg in 48.35 (split, 22.21), and in the solo event clocked 48.67, off a 22.43 split, meaning that the Russian ends the shiny years as the only man who managed to swim inside 49sec four times. Everyone in the sport has some odd statistic to smile about from silly season in the race pool - and that one is apt to bring a smile to the face of Korotyshkin's Italian coach Andrea di Nino.

The full Russian splits breakdown: 

  • Stanislav Donets - 23.38; 49.63
  • Sergei Geybel - 26.28; 56.43
  • Evgeny Korotyshkin - 22.21; 48.35
  • Danila Izotov - 21.27; 44.75

More to follow from St Petersburg sometime Monday, when some snow has been shovelled ... no point, it be settling fast ... so, here goes with the rest from the beautiful Russian city:

Mads Glaesner (DEN), who may be among those heading to Potsdam for a spot of Battle Training with Paul Biedermann and some of Russia's top distance men, clocked  14:36.00 in the 1,500 free, 

South African Cameron van der Burgh lifted the 100m breaststroke in 57.15, just 0.05sec ahead of a Russian warming up for a relay world mark, Geybel. Stanislav Donets kept up his fast 2009 pace with a 22.97 win in the 50m back, with Russian teammate Arkady Vyatchanin a little shy of best shiny time, on 1:46.75 in the 200m.

On freestyle, Fred Bousquet (FRA) was wide of his shiny best in the 50m, on 20.52, and Russian Alexander Sukhorukov clocked 1:42.06 to keep Artem Lobuzov at bay by 0.38sec in the 200m.

Jeannette Ottesen (DEN) came home in 51.90 over 100m free and teammate Lotte Friis, world 800m champ, stopped the clock at 4:03.68 after 16 lengths free. On backstroke, the 100m went to Ksenia Moskvina (RUS), on 56.76, while bolter of the year Nadja Higl (SRB) took the 200m breaststroke in 2:17.72.