Russia’s
athletes hope to offset recent national disappointments at the winter Olympics
and World Cup football.
Nikolay
Ivanov for the IAAF
19 June 2002 -
The chief coach of Russian team Valeriy Kulichenko says that he is greatly
satisfied with the team selected for the European Cup. For the first time all
the best Russian athletes are going to participate in the Cup.
“I am sure that now our team is stronger then at the last Cup and it will be fighting for first or second places. It is going to be an interesting competition with a real rivalry,” said Kulichenko. “Of course we have some problems with the men’s team. But it all depends what happens in a real intense competition. We have taken into the team all the best athletes we have now in the country. The selection was mainly based on the results of Znamenskiy Memorial.”
Kulichenko thinks that the great stimulus for Russian athletes is the commercial matter connected with World Cup selection and the prize money that’s at stake. After great failures in winter sports at the Olympics and at the World Cup in soccer, athletics looks like being the leading sport in Russia.
Here is a list of Russian team for the European Cup -
Men: 100 m Andrey
Yepishin. 200 m Oleg Sergeyev. 400 m Oleg Mishukov. 800 m Yuriy Borzakovskiy.
1500 m Viacheslav Shabunin. 3000 m Mikhail Yeginov. 5000 m Dmitriy
Maksimov. 110 m/h Andrey Kislyh. 400 m/h Boris Gorban. 3000 m steeple Roman Usov.
4x100 m Andrey Yepishin, Aleksandr Smirnov, Aleksandr Riabov, Sergey Blinov.
4x400 m Oleg Mishukov, Andrey Semenov, Yevgeniy Lebedev, Ruslan Maschenko . High
jump Yaroslav Rybakov. Pole vault Vasiliy Gorshkov. Long jump Daniil Burkenya.
Triple jump Igor Spasovhodskiy. Shot put Pavel Chumachenko. Discus throw Dmitriy
Shevchenko. Hammer throw Vadim Khersontsev. Javelin throw Sergey Makarov.
Women: 100 m, 200 m Yulia
Tabakova. 400 m Olesia Zukina . 800 m Irina Mistyukevitch. 1500 m Tatiana
Tomashova. 3 000 m Yelena Zadorozhnaya. 5 000 m Olga Yegorova.100 m/h Marina
Koroteeva. 400 m /h Yulia Pechenkina 4x100 m Yulia Tabakova, Natalya Ignatova,
Irina Khabarova , Larisa Kruglova, Marina Kislova, . 4x400 m Olesia Zykina,
Natalia Levshuk, Anna Tkach, Natalia Ivanova. High Jump Marina Kuptsova. Pole
vault Svetlana Feofanova. Long jump Tatiana Kotova. Triple jump Anna Pyatykh,
Shot put Svetlana Kriveleva . Discus throw Natalya, Sadova . Hammer throw Olga
Kuzenkova. Javelin throw Tatiana Shikolenko.
A
tough weekend ahead
for
German teams
Jorg
Wenig for the IAAF
19 June 2002 -
Nils Schumann
hopes to show
improved form,
while other Olympic champions Riedel and Drechsler will miss this weekend’s
European Cup.
Germany’s athletics teams have a big goal in Annecy during the next weekend: Both men and women want to qualify for the IAAF World Cup in September. That means they have to take first or second place in the European Cup in Annecy. For the women second place behind the favourites from Russia seems to be a reasonable target as it was last year, although it might well be a much closer battle with France and Britain. But for the men, who reached a disappointing sixth place last year, it looks very tough to secure qualification in a battle against cup holders Poland and further favourites Britain and France.
Additionally injuries have weakened the Germans. Grit Breuer, Heike Drechsler, Lars Riedel and Florian Schwarthoff are the most prominent athletes out of the European Cup teams due to injuries. Additionally Dieter Baumann is not in the team, although he has once again proved that he is still Germany’s best long distance runner.
Other athletes have lacked form in recent weeks. Olympic champion Nils Schumann is one of them. Opening up his season with a 400 m in a modest 47.75 seconds on 26th May he continued with two 1500 m races. First he ran 3:43.72 minutes in Dessau, then improved to 3:42.41 in Cottbus. And also in his first 800 m race of the season in Dortmund on 8th June he was far away from his best. Being beaten by his own weapon, a strong finish, by Belgium’s Joeri Jansen he clocked 1:46,41. Speculation started afterwards concerning Schumann’s chances of defending his European title in Munich in August.
Nils Schumann then explained: “Everything is ok. The only problem is: the season is three and a half months long and you cannot be three and a half months in top form.” In recent weeks Schumann, who had to cancel his indoor season after just two races because he broke his arm when falling off his mountain bike, has trained very hard.
“Because of the hard training I often felt tired and it was difficult to get motivated for my races. But I rely on my coach Dieter Hermann, who has a lot of experience. I have to get through this tough time.”
Last Friday Schumann ran another 1500m in Kassel and improved to 3:38.51 minutes. It was a personal best by nearly two seconds. Schumann had run 3:40.36 in 2000.
“I think I will clearly improve on my Dortmund performance at the European Cup and later in the German championships”, said Schumann. In Annecy he will run his second 800m race this season. “I can’t see any problems with Nils. I believe he will fight for the medals when it comes to terms in Munich”, his manager Jos Hermens said.
While Nils Schumann had been Germany’s athletics hero in 2000, a year later Ingo Schultz took over this role. The 400m runner had a fine start to the season and has already improved to 45.34 seconds in Hamburg last week. “I was quite surprised just how difficult it is to run sub 46 seconds again”, commented Ingo Schultz.
After his silver medal in the World championships in Edmonton last summer he had not run any individual 400 m race until this season. “After the World championships Ingo had a long period of relaxation. But mentally Edmonton is still in his head – and this is good for him”, said his coach Jürgen Krempin.
“I know that I am supposed to be among the favourites this season. But I can live up to those expectations”, concurred the 26-year-old Ingo Schultz.
The situation for another potential German medal candidate is not such a good one. Martin Buss, the World high jump champion, has trained well in his seasonal build up, but has not been in good form. “I have no explanation why it does not work in competition at present”, he said. His season’s best is only 2.20 m. But last year he also had problems in the early season.
Discus giant Lars Riedel is coping with an injury to his shoulder and also has had some private problems after the split up with his wife and family. So instead of him Michael Möllenbeck will throw the German discus in Annecy. The bronze medal winner from Edmonton should be a good substitute.
Mike Fenner, who up to date is the only German sprint hurdler who has beaten the national qualifying time for Munich, which is 13,45 seconds. Fenner’s best time so far is 13.43. Florian Schwarthoff is only number four in the list (13.60) and is reported to have slight problems with his Achilles tendon. “But I believe Florian will be coming back strongly in time”, Mike Fenner said. He should know because Fenner and Schwarthoff train together daily in Berlin.
Claudia Marx is in a similar position as Mike Fenner. The 23-year-old 400 m runner from Berlin surprised in Vienna, winning a silver medal in the European Indoors. But still she expected a harder fight for the three German individual team places for Munich, because there has been such fine depth in 400m running in Germany in recent years.
“Grit Breuer is definitely missing in our event”, commented Claudia Marx. Besides Florence Ekpo-Umoh she is the only German quarter miler to have run sub 52 seconds. While Breuer cannot train properly due to problems with her Achilles tendon, Marx will represent Germany for the first time in the individual event of the European Cup.
Another of the young guns is 22-year-old Sina Schielke, who will run 100 and 200 m in Annecy. Schielke, who won the sprint double in the European Juniors in 1999, had missed the World Championships in Edmonton through injury and suffered from back problems in the winter. “But that is okay now. I could train properly without any problems. And that is why I am in good form”, Sina Schielke said. She improved to 11.16 and 22.94 seconds recently.
Although the peerless Heike Drechsler will be out of the European Cup team, her calf injury is reported to be not that bad. She should be back in time to qualify for the European Championships in Munich where she will challenge for her fifth consecutive title.
Poles
are
ready to defend European Cup title.
Janusz
Rozum for the IAAF
19 June 2002 - Following on from this weekend’s Kusocinski Memorial meet in
Warsaw, Polish Head Coach Jerzy Skucha announced Poland’s team for this coming
weekend’s European Cup in Annecy, France. The Polish men’s team are defending
champions following their unexpected win last year, whereas the Polish women
after two years of absence will once again participate the top level of the
competition after gaining promotion last summer.
The biggest surprise is the omission from the men’s team of Poland’s captain from their 2001 triumph in Bremen – Szymon Ziolkowski, the World and Olympic hammer champion. Seven consecutive defeats this spring is the painful tally for the Edmonton champion who last year was defeated only by Koji Murofushi. In his place the 1996 World junior champion Maciej Palyszko has been chosen.
At last weekend’s Kusocinski Memorial meeting the 100m was won by Piotr Balcerzak, but he has an average time of only 10.34, and that’s why Marcin Urbas will compete in both sprint races.
The injury to Robert Mackowiak (46.04 ’02) is more serious then supposed. As no one has moved past 46 seconds, it was decided that the European indoor 400m champion Marek Plawgo who is also World junior 400m hurdles gold medallist, should run the flat 400m, giving his hurdles spot to reigning European 400m hurdles champion Pawel Januszewski. Plawgo is certainly capable of running close to 45 seconds on the flat. His personal best is still from the indoors (45.39).
Pawel Czapiewski, the European indoor 800m champion made his season's best result at the memorial meet, but in his fourth start he didn’t win. Health problems are the reason he won’t run the 1500 as well as the 800m.
In 1500 and 3000 metres, Zbigniew Graczyk and Tomasz Babiszkiewicz will debut. The latter last year only just lost the European Junior 1500m title by a very small margin. Jakub Czaja’s injury made his start impossible in either the 5000m or steeplechase.
Talented hurdler Tomasz Scigaczewski returned on the track after a one year break from competition caused by surgery, but there is a faster Polish record holder Artur Kohutek who gets the team selection.
In the jumps a serious weakening is the injury of Adam Kolasa in the pole vault. He is replaced by 18 year-old Przemysław Czerwiński (5.31).
In other jumps and the shot put and discus the same athletes will compete as last year, while in the javelin, Dariusz Trafas will be fighting with Steve Backley and Sergey Makarov, and could improve his new Polish record.
The 4x400 relay squad will line up without 3 athletes from the “iron” team: Robert Mackowiak, Piotr Haczek and Polish record holder Tomasz Czubak, who has only just resumed his training after Achilles tendon surgery. Even with the addition of Marek Plawgo, maintaining their number one position in Europe will be difficult for the Polish squad.
The women team in the last nine editions of European Cup have only 3 times been in the top division and were then always immediately relegated
For Lidia Chojecka there is again the chance to run both the 1500m and 3000m as she did in last two European Cups in Bydgoszcz and Vaasa.
Women will compete for the first time in a major international match in the steeplechase which will also give Justyna Bak the first opportunity to get back her World record back, which she lost to Alesya Turova of Belarus recently.
In the high jump and the long jump, Anna Ksok and Katarzyna Klisowska will start, they are both bronze medallists from the European juniors last year in Grosseto, and will later also try to repeat their achievements at this year’s World Junior Championships in Kingston.
The leader of the world lists in hammer, Olympic champion Kamila Skolimowska, will have a fight on with the French hosts Manuela Montebrun, who has a performance just 6cm less than the Pole.
In all the other throws, very experienced athletes will compete – Katarzyna Zakowicz, Joanna Wisniewska and Ewa Rybak.
The 4x400 relay squad is steadily improving and they were finalists in Edmonton and so should show well in Annecy too.
Summing up, the women will have a real fight to stay in the top flight and as for the Polish men, they are ready to make a good defence of their title.
Men:
100 m - Marcin Urbas SB:10.39, PB: 10.31
200 m -
Marcin Urbas 20.40, 19.98
400 m - Marek Plawgo
45.39i ‘02
800 m - Pawel Czapiewski 1:46.25, 1:43.22
1500 m - Zbigniew Graczyk 3:39.46 ‘02
3000 m - Tomasz Babiszkiewicz 8:01.21 ‘02
5000 m - Dariusz Kruczkowski -, 13:44.58
110 m h -
Artur Kohutek 13.50, 13.27
400 m h - Pawel
Januszewski 49.16, 48.17
3000 m st - Rafal Wojcik 8:30.58, 8:17.09
HJ - Grzegorz Sposob 2.30, 2.30
PV - Przemyslaw Czerwinski 5.31 ‘02
LJ - Grzegorz Marciniszyn 7.97, 8.28
TJ - Jacek Kazimierowski 16.34, 16.74
SP - Leszek Sliwa 19.78, 20.02
DT - Olgierd Stanski 61.84, 64.20
HT - Maciej Palyszko
78.98, 80.25
JT -
Dariusz Trafas 86.77, 87.17
4x100 m (Marcin Urbas; Marcin Jedrusinski 20.49 ‘02; Piotr Balcerzak 10.34,
10.15; Ryszard Pilarczyk 10.35, 10.26; Zbigniew Tulin 10.40, 10.32)
4x400 m (Marek Plawgo; Piotr Rysiukiewicz 46.37, 45.54; Rafal Wieruszewski
46.38, 45.76; Marcin Marciniszyn 46.56 ‘02; Artur Gasiewski 46.34 ‘02)
women:
100 m - Beata Szkudlarz 11.40 ‘02
200 m - Beata Szkudlarz 23.72 ‘02
400 m - Grazyna Prokopek 51.77 ‘02
800 m - Anna Jakubczak 2:02.85, 2:00.78
1500 m - Joanna Kaczor 4:16.01, 4:15.97
3000 m - Lidia Chojecka PB: 8:33.35
5000 m - Marzena Michalska 15:52.8 ‘02
100 m h - Aurelia Trywianska 13.23 ‘02
400 m h - Anna Olichwierczuk 55.90, 55.61
3000 m st - Justyna Bak 9:22.29 ‘02
HJ - Anna Ksok 1.90, 1.94i ‘02
PV - Monika Pyrek 4.57, 4.61
LJ - Katarzyna Klisowska 6.31, 6.39
TJ - Liliana Zagacka 13.92, 14.22
SP - Katarzyna Zakowicz 18.31, 19.28
DT - Joanna Wisniewska 62.06, 63.97
HT - Kamila Skolimowska 72.60 ‘02
JT - Ewa Rybak 58.23, 60.76
4x100 m (Beata Szkudlarz; Monika Dluga 11.64, 11.61; Agnieszka Rysiukiewicz
11.61 ‘02; Daria Onysko 11.63 ’02, Joanna Nielacna 11.83, 11.59)
4x400 m (Grazyna Prokopek; Anna Olichwierczuk PB: 53.69; Anna Pacholak 53.31,
52.74; Zuzanna Radecka 52.56, ‘02; Aneta Lemiesz 53.34, 52.68).
