Valerya Volik, the 16yearold disciple of Yelena Isinbayeva’s former coach Yevgeniy Trofimov won the Women’s Pole Vault at the Russian U-23 Championships (7 – 9 July) in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, on 8 July, set a new World Youth best of 4.40m in the process.
Volik (whose name was reported incorrectly last week as ‘Bolik’) has been coached under Trofimov’s guidance in Volgograd for several months. Last week at the Russian Youth Champs (U18) in the city of Bryansk she cleared 4.33m. In Kazan she did it even better: she cleared 4.35 on her 3rd attempt and then on her next height she vaulted 4.40m on her second attempt beating the previous World Youth best of Greece’s Ekaterini Stefanidi (4.37m, 20 Feb 2005) by three centimetres.
Volik also tried to clear the World Junior record of Germany’s Silke Spielgelburg (4.48m) but failed on all her attempts.
Daughter of Olympic champion parents triumphs
The 20-year-old Oksana Kondratyeva won the Women’s Hammer easily – 61.81m leaving the best opponent 2.5m behind. She is being coached by her mother Lyudmila Kondratyeva – the 1980 Olympic 100m champion. Now Oksana is living with her mother in Indonesia where Kondratyeva works as an athletics consultant. Lyudmila’s former husband and the father of Oksana is Yuriy Sedykh, the 1976 and 1980 Olympic champion, and reigning record holder in the Men’s Hammer Throw. Now the couple are divorced and Yuriy is married with another exceptional athlete, the 1988 Olympic champion in Shot Put Natalya Lisovskaya.
Roman Smirnov got three golden medals in Kazan. He won the 100m (10.52), 200m (20.97) and was in the winning Moscow relay team at 4x100m.
Natalya Murinovitch won the women’s 100m (11.63), and in the 4x100m as part of the Rostov-on-Don women’s quartet.
Other results…
Vyacheslav Sokolov won the men’s 800m – 1:49.78. Pavel Osipov got the gold at the 1500m – 3:46.12. Aleksei Reunkov – one of the twin brothers Reunkov – clocked 13:55.67 in the 5000m. Pavel Onizshenko was first in the 110m Hurdles, leaving Sergei Molchanov a little behind with his 13.95 second run. Vladimir Antimanis dominated at the 400m Hurdles – 50.78.
Vadim Kolesnikov took the men’s High Jump after clearing 2.25m and Aleksandr Shustov was second on count-back at the same height. Dmitriy Starodubtzev cleared 5.60m in the Pole Vault. Aleksei Kolganov got the gold medal in the Triple Jump – 16.59m. Soslan Tzirikhov was victorious in the Shot Put with an excellent 19.24m. Aleksei Tovarkov was first in Javelin Throw – 75.00m.
In the women’s events Yelena Migunova won the 400m – 50.97. Yekaterina Martynova was the winner of the 800m (2:00.85), with Tatyana Beldukova the runner-up (2:00.98), taking the 1500m in 4:13.83. Victorya Trushenko was first at 5000m – 16:08.03. Svetlana Topolina clocked 13.40 seconds in the 100m Hurdles leaving Victorya Gappova behind by one hundredth of a second. Yuliya Milukova clocked 55.90 for the 400m Hurdles.
Yekaterina Kontsevitch cleared 1.95m in the High Jump; Anna Nazarova leapt to a 6.66m Long Jump; Tatyana Yakovleva took the Triple Jump (14.08); Marya Abakumova, was the victor in the Javelin Throw (56.66).
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
