Russian athletes open the season
Nikolay Ivanov
27 January 2001 - Moscow - The "Russian Winter" meeting was opened with a new national indoor record. Olga Kotlyarova from Sverdlovsk easily ran 400 in 50.42 without any danger from her rivals. Her coach Rif Tababilov says that Olga potentially can run under 50.00.
"I want to show my best result in Lisbon, I am sure that my result at "Russian Winter" will give me a chance to win the gold medal. The main problem will be to take proper position in the first lane and overcome the pressure of the preliminary heats.
The winner of "Russian Winter" in shot put and the silver medallist in Sydney, Larisa Peleshenko, also said that she is going to be first at the indoor and outdoor World Championships.
"The great motivation of all Russian athletes is the prize money at the World Championships, we need this money very much," - said Peleshenko. – I know the mistakes I made in Sydney and I’ll not repeat it in Edmonton."
"We are satisfied with the opening of the season. Our team in Lisbon will very strong even without some of our leaders like Irina Privalova and Maksim Tarasov. But we do not know the situation with our rivals, and we can not predict how many gold medals we‘ll be able to win Lisbon," said the president of All Russia Federation, Valentin Balahnichev.
Leading Results:
Men: 60 m Genadiy Chernovol (KZK) 6,63 400 m Boris Gorban (Rus) 46,37 800 m Joseph Mutua (Ken) 1.49,42 1500 m Ivan Komar (Bel) 3.45,13 60 m/h Yevgeniy Pechenkin (Rus)7,73 High jump Yaroslav Ribakov (Rus) 2,28 Long jump Danil Burkenia (Rus) 7,91 Shot put Pavel Chumachenko (Rus) 20,68 Women: 60 m Natalya Ignatova (Rus) 7,12 200 m Irina Khabarova (Rus) 23,71 400 m Olga Kotlyarova (Rus) 50,42 800 m Olga Raspopova (Rus) 2.02,64 1500 m Yelena Zadorozhnaya (Rus) 4.07,25 60 m/h Svetlana Laukhova (Rus) 7,99 High jump Anna Chicherova (Rus) 1,92 Long jump Irina Melnikova (Rus) 6,50 Triple jump Savronova Natalia (Rus) 14,40 Shot put Larisa Peleshenko (Rus) 20,01
