An emotional Irina Shevchenko after being knocked over in the Olympic 100m Hurdles final (© Getty Images)
The festivities started very early yesterday in the city of Kazan that is celebrating its 1000 years anniversary and just after it the competitions at this meeting which on Saturday (25) hosts the IAAF Grand Prix II meeting were declared open. But the rain was merciless. And may be it was one of the main reasons why the results left much to be desired.
Olympic crash-out forgotten
It was such a pleasure to see that Irina Shevchenko is in top form. She was so much upset after the collision in the Olympic final with Canada’s Perdita Felicien which left them both on the floor, that sceptics predicted she’d never make a comeback. But she did during the winter season over 60m Hurdles, and yesterday showed that return outdoors is continuing well by first clocking 12.80 in the preliminaries. But in the final Natalya Rusakova (Kresova) clocked the same time as the Olympic finalist – 12.85. Only the photo-finish determined the winner and it was still Shevchenko who got the result. Tatyana Pavliy was third – 13.11.
The flat 100m women’s final brought an unexpected victory to Ekaterina Grigorieva (Lezsheva) - 11.21 – which was the leading time of the Russian season. Olga Fedorova who was the favourite (less then a week ago she took silver at the European Cup clocking 11.21) was second again – 11.24. Marya Bolikova finished third – 11.27.
Unfortunately, the women’s Olympic Discus Throw gold medal winner of 2004, Natalya Sadova failed to appear in the sector because she had caught a cold. In her absence it was Natalya Ampleeva who won the competition with 61.71m. Oksana Tuchak was second – 60.57 – and Darya Pizshalnikova took third – 59.41.
Marya Yakovenko won the 1st place in women’s Javelin Throw – 59.04 leaving behind Lada Chernova (58.50) and Marina Maksimova (54.06).
Olga Pankova was the best in the Triple Jump – 13.79. The World Junior champion, Anastasiya Taranova lost by only 4 cm – 13.75m. Tatyana Titova took third plce – 13.66.
Bogomolova continues in winning form
Galina Bogomolova, who won the 10,000m several days ago at the Russian national championships, was the first in the 3000m – 8:53.62. She took the lead from the very beginning and her victory was absolutely certain. Ekaterina Volkova finished 2nd - 8:54.64 and Alla Zhilyeva was 3rd – 8:56.38.
In men’s High Jump, the winner was determined by count back. It was the well-known jumper Pavel Fomenko who cleared 2.28m, the same result as achieved by Andrei Silnov but he lost by one attempt. It is interesting that he started jumping not long ago: he was a runner before. The ex-World champion Vyacheslav Voronin was third clearing 2.24.
Men’s 110m Hurdles were won by Igor Peremota – he clocked 13.53 in preliminaries and 13.48 in the final – the season’s best in Russia. Yevgeniy Borisov clocked 13.74 and Yuriy Volkov was 3d – 13.89.
One of the main special prizes of the Memorial was won by Aleksandr Krivchenkov who clocked 3:43.78 at 1500m. Andrei Osipov was 2nd on the podium (3:44.40) and Roman Koval, 3rd – 3:44.67.
World Junior champion on high
The World Junior champion Dmitriy Starodubtzev won the Pole Vault – 540m. Andrei Chemov cleared the bar at 5.30 for second, while Sergei Kucheryano took third with the same result.
Men’s 200m were won by the 21 year old Ivan Teplykh – 21.11 who was followed by the Russian champion Oleg Srgeev – 21.35 – and Ildar Gafarov – 21.45.
1998 European champion Kirill Sosunov was the first in Long Jump – 7.87m. Dmitriy Sapinskiy was 2nd – 7.80m and Ruslan Gataulin was 3rd – 7.76m.
Three shot putters went over 20m. Anton Luboslavskiy who will celebrate his 20 years birthday on the 26 June was the winner with his personal best and the overall best result of the season in Russia – 20.71m. Aleksandr Salnikov from Kazan was much applauded by the crowd for his 20.09. Ivan Ushkov remained 3d – 20.08.
Ivanov - out of sorts
In the absence of World champion, Sergei Makarov, it was Aleksandr Ivanov who was considered to be the favourite in the men’s Javelin Throw , but somehow he was not at his best. He stopped competing after two attempts. His best result was 78.39 that permitted him to take the 1st place. Igor Sukhomlinov (74.80) and the World Junior champion Aleksei Tovarnov (72.32) remained far behind.
Unofficial women’s Hammer Throw
In the wet conditions that the women’s Hammer Throw took place, one of the most promising Russian athletes Guliya Khanafeeva slipped during the competitions and got injured. But her first attempt - 66.59m – took fourth.
Ekaterina Khoroshikh turned out to be the winner with the excellent result – 74.31m which normally would have been the best result in the world in 2005 and the world best for under-23. But due to technical reasons the throwing sector didn’t correspond to IAAF rules and that’s why her result as well as the results of the Olympic winner Olga Kuzenkova who took the 2nd place (72.63m) and of Tatyana Lysenko – she was 3rd with 72.64m – cannot be recognized as the official best results of the season.
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
