Yelena Yelesina (RUS) jumps for Olympic gold in Sydney (© Getty Images)
The second day of Russian Indoor Championships were marked by unprecedented results in women’s High Jump. For the first time in history of Soviet and Russian athletics, four participants jumped over 2.00m in one competition.
The decisive battle began at 2.02m, a height which Olympic champion Yelena Yelesina jumped on her first attempt and Russian Indoor record holder Anna Chicherova, finally cleared with a fantastic third leap.
However, Marina Kuptsova, the European Indoor champion was very tentative and failed, and was most upset because she had hoped to attack the Russian record. Svetlana Lapina the other athlete over 2.00m, also failed at 2.02m.
At this point Chicherova made a dramatic gambit, to decisively take the win and attempted a 2.06m Russian record. Yet after only one attempt which did not appear to be that serious, her coach Yevgeniy Zagorulko asked her to quit the competition.
However, Chicherova ignored the advice insisting she should continue in the competition and made a second unsuccessful but vastly more impressive attempt at the height. After that failure, Chicherova finally obeyed her coach, and the competition was at an end.
”I was in a difficult situation,” said Yelena Yelesina, who won on count back at 2.02m. “My rivals had better results than me this season. But the younger girls could not beat the stress. I was the most experienced of all of them and it helped me to win. Now I am going to get a medal at the World Indoor Championships.”
Another record attempt was made in women's Pole Vault by Yelena Isinbayeva. She needed three attempts to clear 4.78, eventually winning with 4.60, while Tatyana Polnova produced 4.50, with only one length of pole in her 'arsenal' of equipment! Her coach also confirmed that even this pole was now too short for the heights that Polnova is now attempting.
Isinbayeva commneted that she has achieved a new level of form this winter, and that in December at the local training competitions she had jumped 4.70m, but three weeks before the Russian championships had got seriously injured and had managed to renew her training only on the eve of the championships.
NB. World Indoor record holder Svetlana Feofanova was selected for the team without participation in the championships and was given permission to miss these national trials.
In the women’s 400m, Natalya Nazarova produced her best of the season with a spectacular 50.57 (world lead) clocking, and Yulia Pechonkina was the second with 51.00. Third was European outdoor champion Olesia Zykina (51.23).
Nazarova said that she didn’t believe she could run much faster indoors at present, meanwhile Pechonkina was shocked by her own good result, and confirmed she had only wanted to secure selection for 4x400m at the World Indoor Championships and not the individual event.
“I did not think before about the 400 metres, but now I’m sure my coach will ask me to run it,” said Pechonkina.
At 800m, Yekaterina Puzanova was very satisfied with her 1:59.01 win, while Yekaterina Rozenberg finished second in 2:00.08. Irina Privalova failed to reach the final in this event.
World outdoor champion Tatyana Lebedeva easily won the women’s Triple Jump with 14.60m, while Ruslan Gataulin took the men’s Long Jump with 8.07m.
Nikolai Ivanov for the IAAF
