Tatyana Lebedeva (RUS) triples to second World gold in Paris (© Getty Images)
31 January 2004Double World outdoor Triple Jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva’s winter season continued well in the Gubernator Cup – EAA Permit – indoor meet in Samara, Russia, where she improved her World season’s lead by 3cm with a 14.97m performance on Thursday evening (29 Jan).
27 year-old Lebedeva who began her year with a pair of wins in Govenor Volgograd on 17 January - a 14.94m Triple Jump and a 6.93m Long Jump - is next expected to jump on Sunday night (1 Feb) at the Russian Winter meeting in Moscow.
In Samara, her 14.97m win beat fellow Russians Anna Pyatykh (14.94), Yelena Ivanova (14.25), and Oksana Rogova (14.25), who were the only other jumpers in the eight woman field to jump over 14 metres. Senegal’s Kene Ndoye, the World Indoor bronze medallist was back in 6th with 13.75m.
Cuban jumpers beaten
In the men’s Long Jump, former five-times World Indoor champion Ivan Pedroso of Cuba was back in third with a lowly 7.87m leap. In second was his compatriot Luis Méliz (7.97), with the winner being Russia's 24 year-old Vitaliy Shkurlatov who leapt 8.06m. The winner has a personal indoor best of 8.38m which he jumped in Samara in 2000, the year in which he took the European Indoor bronze.
There was a seriously tight competition in the men’s Triple Jump with Cuba’s World outdoor silver medallist Yoandris Betanzos, 21, having to concede best to Russia’s Danila Burkenya, 25, who jumped a huge personal best of 17.41m. Betanzos jumped 17.39. In third was 22 year-old Belarussian Dmitri Valyukevich who also finished with a best of 17.31m.
The reigning World Indoor bronze medallist Yoelbi Quesada of Cuba was as much out of sorts at this meeting as was his counterpart Ndoye in the women's competition, as the Cuban finished in 10th with 16.18.
The Russian victor Burkenya leapt his previous indoor best of 17.25m on 18 January in Moscow, and prior to 2004 had never been above 17 metres. Until now he has principally been a Long Jump specialist having personal bests of 8.07 indoors and 8.35 outdoors. The 25 year-old was a fifth place finisher in the Long Jump in the European championships of 2002, and was a non-qualifier at the Worlds in Paris last summer.
IAAF
Selected Results - Samara (RUS) 29.1.2004
Men
60 m: 1) Gennadiy Chernovol (KAZ) 6.66, 2) Cláudio Roberto Souza (BRA) 6.67, 3) Jarbas Mascarenhas (BRA) 6.70
400 m: 1) Dmitri Forshev (RUS) 47,51.
800 m: 1) Sergey Kozhevnikov (RUS) 1.50,92,
Long Jump: 1) Vitaly Shkurlatov (RUS) 8.06, 2) Luis Méliz (CUB) 7.97, 3) Iván Pedroso (CUB) 7.87
Triple Jump: 1) Danila Burkenya (RUS) 17.41, 2) Yoandris Betanzos (CUB) 17.39, 3) Dmitri Valyukevich (BLR) 17.31… 10) Yoelbi Quesada (CUB) 16.18.
Women
60m: 1) Virgen Benavides (CUB) 7.27 (heat 7.24), 2) Irina Tabakova (RUS) 7.27, 3) Larisa Kruglova (RUS) 7.29
400 m: 1) Olesja Krasnomovets (RUS) 52.69, 2) Natalja Antjuh (RUS) 52.97 (B-race),
1500m: 1) Yuliya Kosenkova (RUS) 4:12.38,
60m Hurs: 1) Natalya Kresova (RUS) 8.03, 2) Mariya Korotejeva (RUS) 8.09
High Jump: 1) Yelena Slesarenko (RUS) 1.96, 2) Monica Iagar-Dinescu (ROM) 1.94, 3) Tatyana Novoseltseva (RUS) 1.92,
Long Jump: 1) Irina Simagina (RUS) 6.72, 2) Olga Rublyova (RUS) 6.71, 3) Irina Melnikova (RUS) 6.58
Triple Jump: 1) Tatyana Lebedeva (RUS) 14.97, 2) Anna Pyatykh (RUS) 14.34, 3) Yelena Ivanova (RUS) 14.31… 6) Kené Ndoye Senegal (SEN) 13.75.
