Peleshenko shot puts season’s best in Moscow
Nikolay Ivanov for IAAF
28 August 2000 - Many of Russia’s leading athletes participated in the Moscow Kutz Memorial to test their form before travelling to Sydney. Among them, shot putter Larisa Peleshenko achieved an outstanding 21.46, this year’s world best, making her an Olympic medal favourite. She threw over 21 metres on four of her attempts.
"I am more then satisfied with the result," said Peleshenko. "My previous outdoor best was only 20.99. During the week before this competition I worked with a very experienced psychologist, who has changed my attitude to competing. I now feel much more at ease in the circle and know how to build my confidence with auto-training and self-hypnosis. My unbelievable performance today is the result of this mental preparation."
Irina Privalova ran her new Olympic distance, the 400m hurdles in 54.50. She decided to become a specialist in this event last September and throughout the year has been testing her potential.
"I have taken it step by step. At first I found it very difficult to run over hurdles and I had a few painful injuries," she said after the race. "If I had failed, I was ready to return to sprinting. But I managed to get some results and continued training. Now I am going to fight for the Olympic medal and hope to run under 54.00. Otherwise there’s no sense in beginning a new event."
Meanwhile Svetlana Masterkova, who is set to run the 1500m in Sydney, has expressed the desire to double with the 800m as at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. Her coaches say that her form is improving rapidly and that no one on the Russian team has the same fighting spirit as the double 800m/1500m Olympic champion.
Yuriy Borzakovskiy took part in the Moscow meeting in 4x800m for training purposes. His goal in Sydney is to take part in the Olympic final.
