Igor Nikolaevich Polyansky

Igor Nikolajewitsch Polyanski ( Russian Игорь Николаевич Полянский; born March 20, 1967 in Novosibirsk ) is a former swimmer who competed for the USSR and was one of the best back swimmers of the 1980s.

Career

Igor Poljanski made his breakthrough to the top of the world on March 1, 1985 in Erfurt, when he lowered the world record over 200 meters back to 1: 58.14 seconds. The specialty of Poljanski's technique was an extremely long diving phase after the start, which was stopped by the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), the world swimming federation, after the Olympic Games in 1988, after which the diving phase was only ten meters after the start was allowed to last. It was only when FINA extended the diving phase to 15 meters in 1991 and allowed a new turning technique that the world records from the diving phase era could be beaten. On August 13, 1991, the Spaniard Martin López-Zubero beat Poljanski's 200-meter world record.

At the beginning of August 1985 the European Swimming Championships took place in Sofia , where Poljanski won the titles over 100 meters and over 200 meters back. A few weeks later, Poljanski also won both courses at the Universiade in Kobe. At the 1986 World Swimming Championships in Madrid, Poljanski won the 100-meter distance in 55.58 seconds with almost a second advantage over Dirk Richter from the GDR; Poljanski won over 200 meters in 1: 58.78 minutes and was over two seconds ahead of GDR swimmer Frank Baltrusch . The US-Americans won the layer relay before the relay from the Federal Republic of Germany; the Soviet season with Igor Polyansky, Dimitri Volkov , Alexei Markowski and Nikolai Evseew received the bronze medal. At the European Swimming Championships in Strasbourg in 1987 , Sergei Sabolotnow won on both back stretches , while Poljanski won the silver medal on the longer distance. In the Soviet tier relay, Polyansky competed in the final and won the title together with Dimitri Volkov, Konstantin Petrow and Gennady Prigoda in a new European record time of 3: 41.51 minutes.

In March 1988 Poljanski in Tallinn undercut the four and a half year old 100-meter back world record of the American Rick Carey twice, on March 15 he swam 55.17 seconds and on March 16 55.16 seconds. In July Poljanski managed a further improvement to 55.00 seconds, but this time was undercut a month later by the American David Berkoff . In the run-up to the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, besides Berkoff, the Japanese Daichi Suzuki had also worked on his diving phase and had thus grown into another competitor. First the race over 200 meters took place, here Polhanski won in 1: 59.37 minutes ahead of Frank Baltrusch and New Zealander Paul Kingsman , who won the bronze medal just ahead of Sergei Sabolotnow. Over 100 meters, Poljanski set a new Olympic record in the penultimate heat in 55.04 seconds, which Berkoff undercut in the last heat with a new world record of 54.51 seconds. In the final neither of the two won, but the Japanese Suzuki in 55.05 seconds, Berkoff won silver in 55.18 seconds ahead of Poljanski in 55.20 seconds, Sabolotnow again took fourth place. In the layer relay, the Soviet team management used Sabolotnow in advance. In the finals, Igor Polyansky , Dimitri Volkov, Wadim Yaroschtschuk and Gennady Prigoda undercut their own European record in 3: 39.96 minutes and thus won bronze behind the seasons from the United States and Canada.

Polyanski's heyday ended after the 1988 Olympic Games when the long diving phases were banned from FINA.

He was Soviet champion several times (1988 - over 100 m; 1983, 1986, 1988 - over 200 m; 1985, 1986 - 4 x 100 m relay).

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. Chronicle IV. Seoul 1988 - Atlanta 1996. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-328-00830-6 .

Web links

• Igor Polyansky in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Igor Nikolajewitsch Polyansky in the infosport.ru database (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ World records 200 meters back
2. ↑ Volker Kluge: Olympic Summer Games. Chronicle IV. Page 632, note 522
3. ↑ European Swimming Championships
4. ↑ 100 meters back at the Universiade ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ 200 meters back at the Universiade ( Memento of the original from November 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Results of the Men's Swimming World Championships 1986 ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 286 kB)  
7. ↑ World records 100 meters back
8. ↑ Volker Kluge: Olympic Summer Games. Chronicle IV. Page 155