Alexander Popov just missed breaking his second world record at the Russian Championships. In the semi-final of the mens 100 freestyle, Popov clocked a time of 48.27, just 6/100 hundreths of his own world record of 48.21. He set the record at the 1994 World Championships in Monte Carlo.

The mens 100 free final takes place tonight and we'll be watching to see if he breaks the record.

In the other events yesterday Roman Sludnov won the mens 200m breast in a time of 2:12.86. In second place was Dmitri Komornikov in 2:14.92 and Andrei Ivanov in third in 2:15.39

The mens 200 fly was a bit of an upset as Anatoli Polyakov 1:57.31 defeated Denis Pankratov 1:58.31, by 1 full second to win the event. The day before Pankratov lost the World Record title in the event to Tom Malchow of the USA who swam a time of 1:55.22 at the Charlotte Ultraswim Cadillac Series competition in Charlotte, North Carloina.

In the womens 100 breast Olga Bakaldina won the event in a time of 1:10.06, with Yelena Bogomazova in second with a time of 1:10.36. The two women finished in the same positions in the 200 breast when Bakaldina set a Russian record in the event.

The results for the Russian Championships are available in our meet results section.