Russia's Dmitri Tarabin celebrates a good throw in the Javelin (© Getty Images)
Two world-leading marks in the throws, thanks to Dmitry Tarabin and Tatyana Lysenko, provided the highlights of the third day of Russian Championships in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on Wednesday (24).
Tarabin, the 2013 World University Games champion, achieved a personal best of 88.84m with the last throw of the competition at the final test event before the IAAF World Championships at the same venue next month. It was also the best throw in the world for almost two years.
He led the competition from first round, when he launched his spear out to 84.49m and had three more throws beyond 80 metres before unleashing his big throw. Nobody else in the competition went over 80 metres.
“I’m a little tired as I’m training with the World Championships in mind, so I did not expect such a result today. The javelin run-up sector is remarkable, and the track is great and the location is ideal (for big throws),” said Tarabin.
“I recently watched videos from the 1980 Olympic Games, it was amazing and I hope that the stadium for the World Championships is also filled because support from the audience is very important.
“The main spectator for me today was my wife Maria Abakumova. I saw her in the stands and felt her support.”
World and Olympic Hammer champion Tatyana Lysenko started her competition with world-leading mark of 77.27m and then improved further in the second round to 78.15m before passing her remaining attempts.
Second was European bronze medallist Anna Bulgakova, who added almost two metres to her recent best with a fourth-round throw of 76.17m. Third was Oksana Kondratyeva with 74.52m and for fourth place Gulfiya Khanafeyeva threw 70.91m
Shkolina and Shubenkov impress
London 2012 bronze medallist Svetlana Shkolina won the High Jump with with 1.97m, winning on count back from Tatyana Gordeyeva, who cleared the same height but had more failures. Third was 2004 Olympic Games champion and five-time national champion Yelena Slesarenko, who was competing for the first time since 2011 as she missed all of last year due to a maternity break, and she cleared 1.92m.
Sergey Shubenkov was already pre-selected for the World Championships next month, following his 2012 European title, but was still an impressive winner of the 110m Hurdles in a season’s best of 13.19, the second fastest time by a European this year. A distant second was Konstantin Shabanov in 13.50.
Natalya Antyukh decided not to run in the final of the 400m Hurdles and, in the absence of the Olympic champion, the 2012 European champion Irina Davydova took the honours in 55.49.
In the women’s 400m without any barriers, Kseniya Zadorina won in lifetime best of 50.55, ahead of Tatyana Firova who clocked 50.71 and Kseniya Ryzhova finished third with 50.82.
Yulia Kondakova clocked 12.81 to come out on top in the 100m Hurdles. Tatyana Dektyareva and Yekaterina Galitskaya both were timed at 12.98 but the former was adjudged to have finished second.
Yelena Nagovitsina won the 5000m in 15:23.17.
In other men’s finals, Sergey Litvinov was a convincing winner of the men’s Hammer with a distance of 77.77m. He followed in the footsteps of his father and namesake who won the Russian title 20 years ago in 1993, after also having won Soviet Union titles.
Litvinov junior won by exactly three metres from Aleksey Korolyov, who was second with 74.77m, while Aleksey Zagorniy was third with 74.24m.
Denis Kudryavtsev clocked a personal best of 49.40 to win the 400m Hurdles, although it’s worth noting that Timofey Chalyy was faster at 49.23 when winning that event at the European Junior Championships on Sunday. Maksim Dyldin won his fifth national title over 400m in 45.55.
Sergey Kucheryanu needed just two jumps, first-time clearances at 5.40m and 5.60m, to win the Pole Vault on count back from Aleksandr Gripich while Aleksey Fyodorov won a close Triple Jump contest with 16.81m.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF
