Today was the 1^st day of the qualifying stage of the Russian Swimming Cup in Penza. The competitions are held on the Sura pool. These competitions are very significant for our athletes, because we consider it as the opportunity to compete with one of the strongest swimmers from the Volga region, to get the competition experience before the National championship.

The competition day was competed with the following results:

100m freestyle men:
Abeku Gyekye Jackson (Ghana) 54.09
Ado Gargović (Montenegro) 54.10
Franci Aleksi (Albania) 56.41
Saddam Ramziyеorzoda (Tajikistan) 1:03.02
Eloi Maniraguha (Rwanda) 1:03.03

200m butterfly men:
Luis Emigdio Vega Torres (Cuba) 2:03.27
Salvador Vieira Gordo (Angola) 2:15.97

100m freestyle women:
Baikova Arina (Latvia) 58.14
Lorena Gonzalez (Cuba) 59.10
Habibat Ogunbanwo (Nigeria) 1:01.81
Khan Bisma (Пакистан) 1:03.02

50m breastroke men:
Isihaka Irankunda (Rwanda) 32.20
Fahim Anwari (Afghanistan) 33.40

800m freestyle women:
Baikova Arina (Latvia) 9:10.38

«To sum up, the first day went well. Of course, we understand, that our results can be better, and there is what to work on. The time of the swimmers is close to the best results. Today we can point out the fact, that Ado repeated his personal best in the 100m freestyle. Also, I would like to say about their attitude, I like the fact that they understand why we are here. Now they are learning how to support each other, they think how to become faster, and this is also very important», - commented Pavel Kutashev, swimming coach.

«After first day of competition I am satisfied with my results even though I could I've done some mistakes and I know I could do it better but anyways I'm glad I repeated my PB and I'm looking forward to have a fast race on 200 freestyle tomorrow», - said Ado.

Tomorrow is the 2^nd day of the qualifying stage for the Russian Swimming Cup, and we are waiting for new emotions and results. We wish our athletes to focus on improving results and think only positively! Any result is a valuable experience.