Estonian swim star Eneli Jefimova swept the breaststroke skins event at California college meet Friday, snagging MVP honors, a personal best and a win for alma mater NC State.
Estonian swim star Eneli Jefimova swept the breaststroke skins event at California college meet Friday, snagging MVP honors, a personal best and a win for alma mater NC State.
Jefimova clocked 2:06.19 in the 200-yard breaststroke at the College Swimming League (CSL) meet in Walnut, California, pulling away in the second half to beat Stanford University's Addie Robillard by 2.12 seconds — and shave 0.14 seconds off her previous personal best from February.
Robillard finished in 2:08.31, with teammate Lucy Thomas third in 2:09.67.
NC State's relay win gave the team the right to choose the stroke for the women's knockout skins competition, in which eight swimmers start and the two slowest are eliminated after each round until two remain.
The team picked breaststroke, and Jefimova won every 50-yard round despite having less than two minutes to complete all four, leaving little time to recover.
Jefimova swam the first three rounds in 26.71, 26.89 and 26.68 seconds before clocking her fastest time of 26.65 in the final. Italy's Anita Bottazzo, swimming for Indiana University, finished 0.42 seconds behind.
About 15 minutes later, the Estonian also took second in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing 0.49 seconds behind Bottazzo with 58.74.
Another 15 minutes on, she helped NC State reach the final of the 4x50-yard medley relay skins event, where the team narrowly lost to Indiana, 1:36.95 to 1:36.18.
'It was so hard, I teared up'
"That was an insane meet!" acknowledged Jefimova, a two-time Olympian and four-time European champion. "I even teared up during the last 50 yards of the relay because it was so hard."
She was pleased with her new 200-yard personal best, saying it showed her endurance was improving. "I showed good speed in the skins," Jefimova said. "And the 100 breastroke? That was just hard!"
North Carolina State University (NC State) won the meet with 544.83 points, well ahead of Indiana's 469.83. Fellow Estonian swimmer Egle Salu's University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) team placed third with 394.33, followed by Stanford with 311.
The season's main event for both Estonians is the short-course world championships in Beijing on December 1–6. Jefimova won bronze in the 100-meter breaststroke at the previous championships.
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