Yulia Pechonkina of Russia in action in the women's 400M heats (© Getty Images)
It has been a difficult championships in some respects for Russia, with many of their favourites for gold falling short of that mark.
The biggest disappointment for the Russian team was the failure of Yulia Pechonkina. She just stopped running about 50 metres before the finish.
“I felt that something was wrong with me at the semifinals,” - says Yulia. And the night before the competitions I could not sleep because of the pain in my head, and my heart was beating quickly. It was a spasm. I think the weather change provoked the illness that I had been recovering from for a month in a hospital at my home. The doctors said that there is no medicine against it.”
”I tried to do my best on the distance it was very hard running. It was a bad luck. Those thick rainy clouds in Paris stopped me. And of course my main rival Jana Pittman is a very talented runner.”
Sometimes when I was in hospital I thought about leaving the sport. But it is very difficult to do because when the illness goes away, my top form returns.”
The silver medallist in the Javelin, Tatyana Shikolenko was another athlete, who had a real chance to get the gold medal. After the competition she was speaking about the missed opportunity of becoming a World champion.
“I wanted to show about 68.00 metres, but the demand to throw did not go workout well from my brains to my legs and hands, and I could not make them move in a way I wanted,” said Shikolenko. “I did not make any really good throw.”
Perhaps my movements were blocked by the huge shouting and noise in the stadium, but all the participants were in the equal situation. Three nights I could not sleep in our very noisy athletic village. And the night before the competition I left the village and took the room in the hotel Sofitel. I went to bed at 22.00hrs and for the first time during my staying in Paris I got a good sleep.”
Then there is women’s 800m runner Natalya Khruscheleva who is still blaming herself for giving up control of that race to her great rival Maria Mutola. Natalya who is a former 400m runner, did not expect such a slow race.
“Mutola was controlling any move of the other runners to accelerate from the right and left side,” says Natalya.
But Russia might still end these championships on an upbeat note, as Yuriy Borzakovskiy, at last looks ready to capitalise on his prodigious talent and take the men’s 800m on the last day in the Stade de France.
