(Reuters) – Russia’s Evgeniia Chikunova shattered the 200m breaststroke world record with a time of two minutes 17.55 seconds on the final day of the Russian swimming championships in Kazan on Friday.
The previous record of 2:18.95 was set by South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker in the final of the Tokyo Olympics on July 30, 2021.
Chikunova, then aged 16, finished fourth in that final.
Russian news agency TASS said the record had yet to be ratified by World Aquatics.
Russian and Belarusian swimmers are banned from competing internationally due to the war in Ukraine, but World Aquatics this month established a task force to explore their return as neutrals.
This year’s world swimming championships are scheduled to take place in Fukuoka, Japan from July 14-30.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis)
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