Anna Chicherova (Russia) (© Nikolai Ivanov)
MoscowAnna Chicherova surprised everybody with an outstanding Russian indoor High Jump record of 2.04m in Yekaterinburg on 7 January 2003.
Yet as remarkable as this performance was, the 20-year-old (born 22 July 1982) Moscow student had already jumped well just prior to her record breaking competition, with a 2.00m new personal best jump at the end of 2002 in Bryansk on 20 December, and has since, on 17 January, also jumped 1.92m at the Dyachkov meet (Moscow)
“In my Yekaterinburg jump, I got a wonderful feeling of flight,” commented Chicherova. “I was just flying and then touched the earth. It appeared to be very easy. I was ready to go further and to jump 2.06. But my coach Yevgeniy Zagorulko ordered me to stop. I did not expect to show such a great result, I planned to jump 2.00 or 2.01.“
Chicherova is a student of the Russian state Academy of Physical Culture, and lives in a student hostel, and only began training in August with the much respected coach Yevgeniy Zagorulko, who helped create such great high jumpers as Tamara Bykova and Yelena Yelesina.
“I have lived in a world of athletics since early childhood. My mother was a basketball player and my father a high jumper. I remember he used to take me to the stadium with him. There is a photo, when I was only 3 years old and it shows me trying to make a long jump. My father achieved ‘only’ 2.15, so I intend to bring his dreams as a jumper into reality, through my own performances.”
Chicherova’s family originally lived in the capital of soviet Armenia, Yerevan, but when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 they moved to live in the Russian city of Belaya Kalitva, which in the southern Russian Rostov Don region.
She began more or less serious training for athletics at 11 years old, and in 1999 began her studies in Moscow.
Yevgeniy Zagorulko says that Anna is a wonderful, very intelligent, hard working woman from a very good sports family, and he hopes that her newly found fame will not affect her unduly.
“She has the potential to jump 2.10,” comments Zagorulko,“ and I saw that she could have done that in Yekaterinburg. Frankly speaking, I wanted her to stop her competition after she jumped 2.01m, but the local Governor Rossel, asked me to let her jump for the record, and of course she did it on her third jump. She will try to do even better at her international competitions in Stuttgart, Dortmund and Gent. She will also to take part at the World Indoor Championships.”
“The best age for a female high jumper is before 25 years of age, so she has 4 more years,” confirmed Zagorulko.
Chicherova (178cm and 53kg) will now also have the added benefit of training with Russia’s reigning Olympic champion Yelena Yelesina, who has recently returned to Russia from Australia, and will provide extra support for the new star.
Nikolai Ivanov for the IAAF
