Russian swimmer Prigoda takes gold in China with new WR in men’s 200m breaststroke

Russian swimmer Kirill Prigoda won gold on Thursday in men’s 200m breaststroke event of the 2018 FINA (International Swimming Federation) World Swimming Championships, which is held in China’s Hangzhou between December 11 and 16.

Prigoda, 22, covered the distance in 2 minutes 0.16 seconds and set a new World Record in men’s 200m breaststroke event.

China’s Haiyang Qin clinched the silver medal finishing just 0.99 seconds behind Prigoda and German swimmer Marco Koch took the bronze with the result of 2 minutes 1.42 seconds.

Prigoda’s win on Thursday brought the Russian national team of swimmers its first gold medal at the championship in China. The Russian swimmers earlier brought the silver in men’s 4x100m freestyle event, the bronze in 4x50 mixed freestyle event and the bronze in 100m backstroke, won by Kliment Kolesnikov.

Prigoda, who comes from Russia’s second largest city of Saint Petersburg, is the two-time bronze medalist of the 2017 FINA World Championship as well as the three-time gold medalist of the 2016 FINA World Championships (25 meters).