Chepik explained why Efimova will go to the World Championships, and not Gilyazova or Kozhakin

Head coach of the Russian swimming team Sergei Chepik explained why the three-time Olympic medalist Yulia Efimova included in the list of athletes who will travel to Budapest for the World Championships.

Efimova became second in the 100m breaststroke and third in the 50m at the Russian Short Course Swimming Championships in St. Petersburg. Ralina Gilyazova was ahead of her at a distance of 50 meters, but became third in the 100 meters. Gilyazova remained outside the list of athletes for the World Championships.

— Efimova is on the list of athletes for the World Championships, but why is she in the lineup, and not, for example, Mashkina?

— If you look at World Aquatics goggles, Efimova has more.

— Eduard Valiakhmetov has more in the 400m medley, but he is not in the lineup.

– I know him very well, unfortunately he only knows how to swim one distance, we also took this into account. We are limited in number of athletes; we have 28 people in total. If the list were put together as usual, it would number around 50 people.

— Why not send Ralina Gilyazova for the future?

– This perspective is very expensive. We have a limited number of athletes for certain reasons. There are a lot of documents to fill out, you have to go through the UMO, and there is the question of visas. We took the quickest route, so we limited ourselves to this amount.

— Ivan Kozhakin has neutral status, but he is not part of the team.

– There are several reasons. Does he have a UMO? Visa?

– No visa.

“So let’s talk later, now everything is happening on the fly,” reports the correspondent of , reporting Chepik’s words.

The World Short Course Swimming Championships will be held from December 10 to 15 in Budapest.

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