Penza, 7 December 2015. PenzaNews. Sergei Fesikov and Maria Astashkina, athletes from Penza, returned with medals from the European short course swimming championship that finished in Israel on Sunday, December 6.

Sergei Fesikov has won the 100 meter medley race with a large advantage, surpassing the runner-up – Yakov Yan Tumarkin – by 0.62 seconds, with the final result of 52 seconds. The third place was taken by Andreas Vazayos from Greece, who finished with 52.67 seconds.

“Sadly, I did not show the time I planned – wanted to make it 51, but something’s still not right in the breaststroke and crawl combination. Perhaps it’s due to a small number of competitions – I’m taking on this challenge for the fifth or the sixth time. Too bad I couldn’t take part in the 100 meter crawl race – it was too close to 100 meter medley in the schedule,” Sergei Fesikov pointed out.

He will be training for 50 meter and 100 meter crawl races for the Russian championship before the Olympics, he said.

“Will be slightly changing the training schedule now. Starting from January, I’ll likely be exercising abroad and going to competitions from there. I’m planning to take part in four competitions before the Russian championship,” the swimmer explained.

In the meantime, Maria Astashkina won the silver medal in 200 meter breaststroke, surpassing Victoria Zeinep Gunes from Turkey, early leader in the race, mere 50 meters before the finish. The winner of the event was Fanni Leclus from Belgium.

“This is my main distance, so I always try to keep some power for it. However, it doesn’t mean I’m slacking off on my other races. I did not aim for the medal, I sought to improve on my morning result,” the press service of the Russian Swimming Federation quotes Maria Astashkina.