Anna Alminova cruises through her 1500m heat (© Getty Images)
Anna Alminova sped to a 4:00.84 solo victory in the 1500m to highlight the final day (15) of competition at the Russian national championships in Saransk.
The 1500m was expected to be the most attractive of the 12 titles up for grabs on the fourth and final day. Running in dark sunglasses, Alminova dominated the race en route to the quickest time by a European this season. Yekaterina Martynova was the runner-up in 4:04.56 with Oksana Zbrozhek (4:05.13) was third.
World indoor 800m champion Mariya Savinova, already pre-selected for the European championships, decided to contest the 1500m here but did not finish.
Ivan Tukhtachev, who celebrated his 21st birthday here in Saransk two days ago, is considered the new Russian hope in the men’s 1500m. But the race turned out badly for him. He was running last at the beginning of the race and didn’t even finish, bursting into tears. At that time Aleksei Konovalov made an unexpected acceleration to take the victory in 3:43.18, rounding out a strong championships for Konovalov’s family. Aleksei is the nephew of Mariya Konovalova who won the 5000m on Wednesday.
Yevgeniy Plotnir leaped 17.05m to win the Triple Jump ahead of Lukman Adams who reached 17.02m. Adams, whose father is Nigerian and mother Russian, has lived in Russia his entire life and qualified for the European championship squad with his final leap. Ilya Efremov (16.94m) finished third.
The women’s Triple Jump was dominated by Nadezhda Alekhina, who broke the sand at exactly the 15-metre line, albeit assisted by an illegal +2.5 m/s win. She also reached 14.86m and 14.77m. Alsu Murtazina was second at 14.63m (+3.2) and Natalya Khudiakova third with 14.55m (+3.0).
Alexandra Fedoriva won the 200m with a 22.41 personal best, another European lead. Anastasiya Kapachinskaya (22.63) was the runner-up to take her second silver of the meet. Yulia Chermoshanskaya was third (22.76).
Vyacheslav Kolesnichnko, 20, won the men’s half lap in 20.62. behind him, Anton Olefir and Ivan Teplykh were inseparable at 20.67 and were tied for second.
In the women’s Hammer Throw, Tatyana Lysenko dominated with a 70.48m best, well ahead of Aleksandra Luzchenko (66.76m) and Mariya Bespalova (64.60m). Igor Vinnichenko won the men’s event with a 76.56m toss.
There were several peculiarities of this edition of Russian championships. For the first time in history they were held in Saransk where the stands were always crammed with an enthusiastic crowd – that’s not always the case in this country. Quite a number of Russian athletes who have already achieved good results in the outdoor season were included in the composition of the national team that will go to Barcelona without taking part in the Championships. It was a quite logical decision given that the championships begin in just over one week. The younger generation got the opportunity to compete and to prove that their efforts were not fruitless. But it was absolutely impossible to challenge Mother Nature. The hot weather conditions and strong winds were sometimes unbearable.
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
Click here for RESULTS
The 1500m was expected to be the most attractive of the 12 titles up for grabs on the fourth and final day. Running in dark sunglasses, Alminova dominated the race en route to the quickest time by a European this season. Yekaterina Martynova was the runner-up in 4:04.56 with Oksana Zbrozhek (4:05.13) was third.
World indoor 800m champion Mariya Savinova, already pre-selected for the European championships, decided to contest the 1500m here but did not finish.
Ivan Tukhtachev, who celebrated his 21st birthday here in Saransk two days ago, is considered the new Russian hope in the men’s 1500m. But the race turned out badly for him. He was running last at the beginning of the race and didn’t even finish, bursting into tears. At that time Aleksei Konovalov made an unexpected acceleration to take the victory in 3:43.18, rounding out a strong championships for Konovalov’s family. Aleksei is the nephew of Mariya Konovalova who won the 5000m on Wednesday.
Yevgeniy Plotnir leaped 17.05m to win the Triple Jump ahead of Lukman Adams who reached 17.02m. Adams, whose father is Nigerian and mother Russian, has lived in Russia his entire life and qualified for the European championship squad with his final leap. Ilya Efremov (16.94m) finished third.
The women’s Triple Jump was dominated by Nadezhda Alekhina, who broke the sand at exactly the 15-metre line, albeit assisted by an illegal +2.5 m/s win. She also reached 14.86m and 14.77m. Alsu Murtazina was second at 14.63m (+3.2) and Natalya Khudiakova third with 14.55m (+3.0).
Alexandra Fedoriva won the 200m with a 22.41 personal best, another European lead. Anastasiya Kapachinskaya (22.63) was the runner-up to take her second silver of the meet. Yulia Chermoshanskaya was third (22.76).
Vyacheslav Kolesnichnko, 20, won the men’s half lap in 20.62. behind him, Anton Olefir and Ivan Teplykh were inseparable at 20.67 and were tied for second.
In the women’s Hammer Throw, Tatyana Lysenko dominated with a 70.48m best, well ahead of Aleksandra Luzchenko (66.76m) and Mariya Bespalova (64.60m). Igor Vinnichenko won the men’s event with a 76.56m toss.
There were several peculiarities of this edition of Russian championships. For the first time in history they were held in Saransk where the stands were always crammed with an enthusiastic crowd – that’s not always the case in this country. Quite a number of Russian athletes who have already achieved good results in the outdoor season were included in the composition of the national team that will go to Barcelona without taking part in the Championships. It was a quite logical decision given that the championships begin in just over one week. The younger generation got the opportunity to compete and to prove that their efforts were not fruitless. But it was absolutely impossible to challenge Mother Nature. The hot weather conditions and strong winds were sometimes unbearable.
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
Click here for RESULTS
