“The guys feel refreshed, they’re in a good mood.” Chepik spoke about the selection of swimmers for the World Championships

Head coach of the Russian national team Sergei Chepik in an interview with , he summarized the results of the Russian short course championship, which became a qualifier for the World Championships in December.

— Sergey Gennadievich, how did the guys behave at the Russian Championship, given that information about the World Championship appeared at the last moment?

— We did a great job, of course, everyone wants to go to the World Cup, everyone wants to participate. But not everyone can go, the strongest will go.

— Yesterday we already talked about the excellent result of Ilya Borodin. Who else would you like to mention?

— I was impressed by the results of Zhigalov and Dorinov in the 200m breaststroke, of course, the result of Prigoda, who achieved his personal results. All three came close to the world record. Luzin has a good result. Yegor Kornev achieved a good result in the 100m freestyle. The girls swam the sprint quite well. Zhenya Chikunova – 1 minute 4 seconds breaststroke, this is not her best result, but for today it is also good. After all, we were preparing for the Russian Championship; athletes and coaches did not know that participation in the World Championship was possible. The rumors started circulating for about a week and a half, but rumors are rumors usually, no one thought this would happen. It’s a nice surprise.

— The fact that Kliment Kolesnikov refused to go is due to suboptimal health and the inability to prepare for the World Championship in this context?

– Absolutely right. He also had a hand injury, his right arm was injured and it was not very comfortable for him to swim.

— Was Minakov’s result taken into account “at a distance”?

– We have always had this practice. If you remember the times when there was a pandemic and athletes studied in the United States or trained in Europe, the same Kirpichnikova and Egorova, we gave them the opportunity to take into account their result from the official departure where they train. Andrey swam earlier and asked me if he could compete in the World Championships in neutral status. Naturally, he had the opportunity to take into account the result.

— The last time the guys swam the relay at the international level was in 2021 in Abu Dhabi. Are you hoping for good results?

— We do not have the possibility to specifically select the relay; we have a limited number of athletes who will participate. We wanted to focus on the relay races and then the personal results. There were such intentions, but since a limited number of athletes will participate, the relay races were put aside a little. Athletes registered for personal distances will swim the relay.

— Do you feel inspired in the team? Or is it because everything was decided in a hurry and few things are yet clear?

— Yes, everything is fast and chaotic, but the guys naturally feel a boost in mood. I’m in a good mood.

— Was it a surprise that Rylov dropped out of the Russian championship?

— Zhenya was ill and undergoing treatment; the fact that he did not participate in the Russian Championship was not a surprise. I was present at the last training camp and his health was not good.

— We talked about Efimova until the 100m breaststroke. Finally, I was selected.

— It was selected on a general basis. We immediately took the first numbers automatically from a distance, and the rest – based on World Aquatics points.

— Will you go to the World Championships?

— If I go, I will have to remove an athlete from the team. I won’t be there. The personal coaches, as the coaching council, will jointly make decisions regarding the relay races. And the team leader will be there. We anticipate that four coaches will come who know how to work as a team, working not only with their own athletes, but also with others. I’m sure everything will be fine.

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

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