Natalya Gorelova (© Getty Images)
MoscowRussian middle distance runner Natalya Gorelova used the final day of the national indoor championships in Moscow to achieve a new personal best and new Russian record time in the 1500 m of 4:00.75.
“I was ready to achieve 4:00 minutes, “ said Natalya. “I wanted to show a best time and was helped by the rabbit who supported the fast pace. My only aim is to participate in the World Indoor Championship. I concentrated all my efforts on the preparation and decided to miss some commercial meetings.”
“Now I am sure that Natalya will be fighting for the gold medal in Birmingham, “ said Gorelova’s coach Sergey Yepishin.
“Last year she was operated for a very serious injury of her right leg, that is why she was not ready to participate in the European championships last summer.
"Now we used Russian championships to produce the best result. This will be great for her. I do not think that anybody will be able to stop her in Birmingham. There are two weeks before the World Championships and she will be on her top form.”
Yekaterina Rosenberg followed Gorelova across the line with 4:02.58 and will also run in the 1500 m in Birmingham.
In the 200 metres, Anastasiya Kapochinskaya ran a world leading time of 22.59 for her ticket to Birmingham and a chance to go for gold at the World Indoors.
In women’s long jump Olga Rubleva bounded 6.75 metres to win the competition. But the leader in this event will be Tatiana Kotova. Kotova has just one indoor appearance planned for the season and is aiming to produce one great performance and it must happen in Birmingham. She got a place in the team without selection.
Vasiliy Gorshkov won the men’s pole vault with 5.70. He was selected for the team together with 20-year-old Dmitriy Kuptsov from Cheliabinsk (5.70), who is being promoted as the future star of Russian pole vault. Kuptsov began training in this event in 1998 and has been making steady progress with every competition. He trains with his 19-year-old brother Artem, who cleared 5.50 metres in Moscow. Some people called them the new Bubka brothers.
In the high jump, Yaroslav Rybakov had already been selected for the team but he decided to test himself and participated in the championships anway. This time, however, he failed and jumped only 2.25, while the winner Mikhail Zvetkov produced a clearance of 2.28. But in Birmingham Yaroslav has said that he will jump 2.36.
Also selected for Birmingham was Andrey Zadorozhniy who ran 1500 m in 3:44.31 to ensure his berth for the World Indoors.
The head coach of the Russian national team, Valeriy Kulichenko, says that Russia is targeting 14 medals in Birmingham, with at least five golds, and take a second place after USA among the teams.
The Russian team has more potential than was the case before the championships in Lisbon. For the first time women’s team is rather powerful in all events except 60 mh.
For the first time there was strong competition to win a championships' berth. In the men’s team there some new names like Ruslan Gataulin in long jump and Dmitriy Kuptsov in pole vault while the star of the Lisbon championships, Yuriy Borzakovskiy, decided to take a rest during the winter season.
The Russian Team for Birmingham:
Men
60m Andrei Yepishin, Aleksandr Smirnov.
400 m, 4x400 m Oleg Mishukov, Aleksandr Usov, Andrei Rudnitskiy, Dmitriy Bogdanov, Andrei Semenov, Dmitriy Golovastov .
800 m Sergei Kozhevnikov
1500 m Andrei Zadorozhniy
60 mh Andrei Kislyh.
High jump Mikhail Tsvetkov, Yaroslav Rybakov.
Pole vault Vasiliy Gorshkov, Dmitriy Kuptsov.
Long jump Ruslan Gataulin.
Triple jump Viktor Guschinskiy, Vitaliy Moskalenko.
Shot put Pavel Chumachenko.
Heptathlon Lev Lobodin.
Women
60 m Maria Bolikova, Marina Kislova.
200 m Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, Yulia Tabakova.
400, 4x400 m Natalya Nazarova, Yulia Pechenkina, Olesia Zykina, Natalya Antyukh, Anna Tkach, Olga Galendukhina.
800 m Yekaterina Puzanova, Nadezhda Vorobieva.
1500 m Natalia Gorelova, Yekaterina Rozenberg.
3000 m Galina Bogomolova, Yelena Sidorchenko.
60 mh Svetlana Laukhova, Yulia Shabanova.
High jump Anna Chicherova, Yelena Yelesina.
Pole vault Svetlana Feofanova, Yelena Isinbayeva.
Long jump Tatiana Kotova, Olga Rubleva.
Triple jump Tatiana Lebedeva, Anna Piatykh.
Shot put Irina Korzhanenko, Svetlana Krivileva.
It is possible that some minor changes in the list could be made in the next few days.
