Yuliya Nesterenko of Belarus clocks 10.94 to win the women's 100m heats (© Getty Images)
Apparently, Yuliya Nesterenko likes to race in Greece.
After racing to a bronze medal in the 60m at the World Indoor Championships last March, Nesterenko made her outdoor debut in the Greek town of Réthimno in late June, and immediately picked up where she left off. With a dominating 11.02 win and national record, the 25-year-old beat a solid field by more than two-tenths of a second and suddenly found herself on the cusp of sub-11 territory.
Quietly and steadily since, the soft-spoken and friendly sprinter readied herself for a return engagement in Greece where she would shock the world as the first major surprise of the Olympic Games.
“That win showed me that I could run fast and win,” Nesterenko said. “But I didn’t think then that I could become Olympic champion.”
Rome TDK Golden League win
But her win at the annual Vardinoyannia meeting was not a one-off effort. Just four days later, she fought a strong 2.5 headwind en route to an 11.32 victory at the British Super Grand Prix in Gateshead, winning by more than a tenth of a second over Debbie Ferguson. With confidence building, she entered her first Golden League race the following week, and emerged victorious there as well with her 11.13 win in Rome’s Golden Gala.
“It was a great confidence booster,” she said of her win in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, where she beat Olympic finalists-to-be Aleen Bailey of Jamaica and Bahamian Debbie Ferguson for her first major international win. “It helped me a lot. I always underestimate my strength and this race helped me. It made me hope that I could win in the Olympics.”
Another Greek win
Less than 48 hours later she returned to Greece and won again, this time at the Super Grand Prix in Iraklion, but her performance was even more convincing. Her 11.06 win was a dominant one, more than two-tenths of a second ahead of runner-up Natasha Mayers. Concluding a busy five-day competitive stretch, she was third at the Lausanne Super Grand Prix two days later, her only loss of the season. She hadn’t raced since, choosing to focus on her next appointment in Greece.
Consistent
In Athens over the past two days, she was the picture of consistency. With her opening round 10.94, she finally dipped under 11 seconds, where she has since remained. After a second round 10.99, she preceded her 10.93 gold medal performance with another personal best, a 10.92 in the semis.
Her road to Athens glory began when she was a school girl, participating in athletics, swimming and other sports. But she quickly gravitated to what she immediately knew was her greatest passion.
“In school,” she recalls, “I used to run faster than others. I began to swim faster, jump further, I really loved it. But I always loved sprints. I think it’s the most exciting, the most beautiful sport. And when I started working with my coach, it all happened very naturally that we concentrated on the sprints.” Often coaches proposed that I start swimming or jumping, but I’m usually very severe, or critical of myself, and I never expected to become Olympic champion.”
Important International experience
For the past six years, she’s been training under coach Victor Yerosevich who steadily guided her from a promising, if modest 11.87 sprinter in 2000 to the 2004 Olympic title. In 2001 she improved to 11.46, and the following year to 11.29 while winning her first national title. She didn’t improve last year, but gained invaluable international experience as a member of the Belarussian 400m relay squad at the World Championships, earning a spot in the final in Paris and eventually finishing seventh.
More weights
Over the last year, she and Yerosevich decided her training needed a complete overhaul, a switch that has reaped the ultimate dividend. Adding new elements, including plenty of weight training, “We decided to completely change training methods, and we tried something completely new,” she said. “I got a new physiotherapist, and finally, I trained the whole year thinking about the Olympic Games.”
A new living environment was a big boost as well, she said, adding that she and husband Dmitriy, a 400m runner, finally moved out from under her mother’s wing and into their own apartment.
Budapest bronze
Even before her successes this summer, she and the athletics world caught a fleeting glimpse of what was to be when she fought her way to a bronze medal in Budapest’s World Indoor Championships, where she finished just a few notches behind Gail Devers and Belgian Kim Gevaert. She didn’t realize it then, she said, but it was a turning point for her as well.
“After the World Indoor championships, where I finished third, I really felt that I could achieve a lot,” she said. “And I trained as hard as I could.”
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
