Yelena Soboleva (667) running in the Helsinki World Championships - Bati ETH (201) and Ghezielle FRA (250) (© AFP/Getty Images)
Russian Yelena Soboleva has set a women's World Indoor 1500m record with a time of 3:58.28* this afternoon on the third and final day of the Russian Indoor Championships in Moscow.
Soboleva, who was fourth at the World Championships in Helsinki last summer at 1500m, is 23 years of age, and in winning the national championship today bettered the old World record set by USA's Regina Jacobs in 2003 (1 Feb) - 3:59.98.
1500m
1. Yelena Soboleva 3:58.28*
2. Yulia Chizhenko 4:01.26
3. Yelena Kanaris 4:03.53
How the race unfolded -
Yelena Kanales took the lead clocking the opening laps in 30.7; 62.6; 1:36.0. Then it was Yuliya Chizhenko who went to the front for a short period of time. It was Chizhenko who set the European 1000m record at Russian Winter tournament this year.
The split at 800m was 2:09.2 and at 1000m it was 2:41.6. And then it was Yelena Soboleva who took the lead. Her burst of speed was fantastic, and her clocking at 1200m was 3:13, and 300m later she crossed the line in 3:58.28.
The runners who followed also finished in excellent times though Chizhenko looked tired as she finished second in 4:01.26, and Kanales got the bronze – 4:03.53.
Career profile:
Soboleva started her athletic career in 1998 in her native city of Bryansk. It was Svetlana Belova who was her first coach but starting from 2001 she became the training disciple of the well-known 800m runner Vladimir Gradynya who was the silver medal winner at the 1987 World Championships and was the record holder of Russia. Then in autumn of 2004 another coach, Matvey Telyatnikov began to help Soboleva.
In 2003 Soboleva was 7th at the European Championships for under-23. Her best results at 800m and 1500m were 2:01.65 and 4:12.02.
This winter at the Moscow championships she clocked 1:58.53 for 800m (4 Feb) and in Yekaterinburg (7 Jan) ran 5:40.75 at the non-standard distance of 2000m. She also finished the 1000m distance in second place (2:32.40) at the Russian Winter (25 Jan)behind Chizhenko.
"She is a nice and very modest girl," confirmed her coach Matvey Telyatnikov. "She has been living in Moscow for several years now for she was invited to join the best atletic club of the country called “Luch”, that is translated as the “Beam”. She is still living in a hostel but takes it stoically.
Why, do You think, Soboleva managed to improve her results so fast?
"There are several reasons for that. First of all she is training very well in Moscow. Besides she has graduated from the Technological Institute of Bryansk and now has more time to devote to sport. It was not like that when she was a student," concluded Telyatnikov.
Rostislav Orlov and Nickolai Dolgopolov for the IAAF
*World record pending ratification
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