Mariya Savinova of Russia crosses the finish line to claim victory in the women's 800 metres final (© Getty Images)
The 2013 Moscow Championships were held at the South sports complex of Luzhniki stadium on Wednesday and Thursday (3-4) and were one of the final test events before the IAAF World Championships are held in the Russian capital next month.
Reigning Olympic and World champion Mariya Savinova was on the paper the main star of the Championships, although formally she does not represent Moscow. In her third 800m run of the season, Savinova had an easy win in 2:00.20
“It was hard for me to run almost alone, as there was no screen and I could not control my pace”, said Savinova. “At 400m, I did not hear the prompt from my husband and relaxed a little bit more than I should have. The result is probably not so impressive, but I am still satisfied because I did not do any special preparation for this race, and I really feel good for this stage of my trainings.”
Two-time Olympic Games 4x400m Relay silver medallist Anastasiya Kapachinskaya had an excellent outing over 200m and clocked a European-leading 22.39, only 0.01 shy of her lifetime best set a decade ago at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, where she won the gold medal.
Since then Kapachinskaya never ran 200m faster than 22.47, and has also never won another medal at this distance at any major outdoor competition.
The 2004 Olympic Games 800m champion Yury Borzakovskiy won over two laps of the track in 1:46.99. In the women’s Triple Jump, 31-year-old Viktoriya Valyukevich leapt to 14.09m.
The7.99m Long Jump by Alexandr Petrov was the highlight of the first day.
The 26-year-old jumper who trains in the same group with 2011 and 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships gold medallist Darya Klishina, regained his Moscow title.
It was when winning at this meeting two years ago that he set his best of 8.20m. The 2013 runner up was Evgeniy Antonov, the bronze medalist at the 2011 European Junior Championships missed all of last summer though injury but improved his best to 7.90m.
Multiple major championship medallist Nataliya Nazarova had an easy win over 400m in 51.92 on Wednesday. The 400m hurdles specialist Anastasiya Ott ran 53.40 without the barriers and then 55.49 in her main event on Thursday.
The traditionally strong women’s 1500m distance saw victory go to Yuliya Vasilyeva in a personal best of 4:11.47. Vasilyeva did not get a medal as she is not the Moscow resident, so the formal champion is Anna Balakshina in 4:12.41.
Natalia Maryanchik for IAAF
