Lyudmila Kolchanova flies to the World Cup title (© Getty Images)
World Cup winner and European Long Jump champion, a 32cm improvement to her personal best (to 7.11m) this season makes her the second furthest jumper in the world this season! 2006 has been quite a year for Russia’s Lyudmila Kolchanova, who turned 27 years of age on 1 October.
The IAAF Website’s Russian correspondents Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov spoke to the athlete, and now explain that Kolchanova’s career has been one of systematic step by step progress. She is achieving her career goals without any rush, conquering the heights of her sport in a calculated manner.
High jumping injuries
Kolchanova’s elder sister was enjoying athletics in school and when Lyudmila turned nine-years-old she simply made up her mind to follow her sister’s example.
The sisters' home city or rather town of Sharya, lies in the provincial region of Kostroma, an area of the country which is almost totally unknown outside Russia’s borders. Sharya has a population of 60,000 inhabitants and without being impolite there really is not much that can be said about them.
Lyudmila Kolchanova started her athletics career as a high jumper and she was doing rather well having cleared a best of 1.82m but she failed to progress any further as she had a persistent heel injury. Also she never had the required body flexibility to make it to the top level at that event. The frustration was ultimately enough for Kolchanova to give up the event entirely and for her to start an alternative sports career in basketball playing as a forward.
But six years ago Kolchanova came back to athletics, switching to the Long Jump under the guidance of her coach Anatoliy Shalaginov.
Long Jump, a Russian parade event
The Long Jump is a strong event in Russia for women, and this year five Russians - Tatyana Kotova (7.12), Lyudmila Kolchanova (7.11), Oksana Udmurtova (7.02), Tatyana Lebedeva (6.97), and Natalya Lebusova (6.93) are among the best six jumpers in the world, with only Australia’s Bronwyn Thompson (6.97) breaking up the global dominance in fourth place on the world list. And then of course there is Irina Simigina who was absent from competition this year to gave birth to her first baby. Simigina was the silver medallist in a Russian sweep of the medals at the 2004 Olympics (Lebedeva gold, and Kotova, bronze).
At the 2006 Russian championships it could not have got much closer with the title being decided between Udmurtova and Kolchanova by just 1cm, the former winning on that occasion. The duel between these two athletes was to continue throughout the season with their most important competition coming in Sweden in early August.
Nervous inexperience
It is worth remembering that Kolchanova only made her international debut in 2005, when she was 6th at the European Indoor Cup in Madrid, with her first serious international victory gained at the World University Games in the Turkish city of Izmir where she managed to set her then personal best of 6.79m.
In Gothenburg, Sweden at the European Championships, Kolchanova as the season's second best jumper in the world was one of the favourites for the title but she lacked some personal belief, and was quite nervous, due to her distinct lack of international experience.
“On the morning of the final I was not myself,” confirmed Kolchanova. “I was afraid that I wouldn’t manage to do my best and to show the result I was capable of. But then I got my nerves in order. When I saw several attempts by Udmurtova (6.69m, eventual bronze medallist) I got to realize that she was far from her best. And I calmed down.”
Kolchanova won the European gold with a leap of 6.93m in the third round, some 18cm away from her personal best result but it is easy to forget that her Gothenburg jump was 14cm above what had been her career summit coming into 2006, so no room for criticism there then.
The following month after a 7.01m leap in Moscow (2 Sep) to win the match against USA, a 6.78m competition also secured the IAAF World Cup title in Athens (17 Sep). Quite a season!
Staying healthy the primary goal
So what are Kolchanova’s plans now that she is the continent’s best long jumper?
She admits that she is not on the verge of improving the World record (Galina Christyakova, 7.52m, 1988), and understands that technically her jumps are far from being perfect.
Several well-known specialists have advised her to follow the steps of Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva and to seriously to try both Long Jump and Triple Jump. At present she has a best of 13.88m (2004) and was sixth at the World University Games in the latter but confirms she doesn’t like the Triple Jump even though in practise she has landed over 14m.
Kolchanova considers the event to be rather dangerous and fears the return of the injuries that haunted her first career in the High Jump.
“Injuries are the most unpleasant regular occurrence in jumping, and the strategic task of any athlete is to avoid them or get rid of them. Simply put, medals, prizes and good results may be achieved only when you are healthy.”
In the rare moments when Kolchanova has some time away from athletics she is surfing the world of the internet. And she has one dream to achieve: next spring Kolchanova is going to buy a car, not a racing car but still one that is really fast.
Fast enough perhaps to catch-up with her development as a world class long jumper? Now that would be fast!
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
