Teen Kolesnikov achieves remarkable 'double-double'

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Europe

Kliment Kolesnikov, Russia’s new teenage swimming phenomenon, completed the European Championships 50 and 100 meters backstroke double on Monday less than five weeks after achieving the same feat at the equivalent junior championships.

The 18-year-old, who broke the world record in Saturday’s 50m event, smashed his own world junior mark while winning the 100m final in a Russian senior record of 52.53 seconds.

The latest tour de force brought him a third gold medal in four days of competition after he had also been part of Russia’s victorious 4x100m freestyle relay quartet.

To complete his stellar day, Kolesnikov swam even faster (52.51 seconds) in the lead-off backstroke leg in the mixed 4x100m medley relay, though the time will not count for record purposes, as Russia won silver behind an Adam Peaty-inspired British quartet.

Peaty, world record breaker in the individual 100m breaststroke, Georgia Davies, the 50m backstroke winner, James Guy and Freya Anderson took gold in a European record 3 minutes 40.18 seconds.

Kliment Kolesnikov wins the Men's 100m Backstroke Final. /VCG Photo

It was in Helsinki at the start of July that Kolesnikov properly announced his brilliance with five golds at the European junior championships, but his progression since has been even more spectacular.

Slicing 0.42 seconds off the mark he had set in Sunday’s 100m semi-finals, the youngster, who only turned 18 last month, left his more experienced fellow Russian Evgeny Rylov, the world 200m backstroke champion, 0.21 second adrift in the final.

On another evening which saw Russia assert their dominance in the pool, taking their table-topping tally of swimming medals to 15, including five golds, Anton Chupkov added the European 200m breaststroke crown to his world title in a European record 2:06.80.

(With inputs from agencies)