Rogerio Bispo from Brazil jumping in Padua (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)
Samara, RussiaTriple jumping took centre stage at the 14th Governor’s Cup meeting in Samara today, but solid performances emerged throughout the entire program.
Under the tutelage of former Samara Governor Konstantin Titov, himself a triple jumper and regional record holder, the event has found a welcome home in Samara. While Titov is now a member of the Russian Parliament, his successor Vladimir Artyakov has continued the tradition by welcoming triple jumpers from throughout the world.
In the past spectators enjoyed the company of such triple jumping celebrities as Jonathan Edwards, Christian Olsson and others. For this edition, several more well-known leaders of this event arrived to this Volga River city. And when we asked one of them - Yoandri Betanzos - what was his opinion of the jumping sector, and the Cuban answered that it was really excellent. But this time Betanzos failed to secure a place on the podium: with his 16.85m jump he remained only fourth.
The victor’s glory went to Slovak Dmitriy Valukevitch, the lone jumper to surpass the 17m mark with his winning 17.04 effort. Osiel Toska from Cuba was second with a 16.93 best with Nickolai Savolainen thirde (16.87).
In the women’s contest, the vctory by Olga Rypakova from Kazakhstan was unexpected but convincing. Her 14.35 is currently the fifth farthest in the world. Olesya Bufalova (RUS) was second with a 14.32 leap.
Russian Ruslan Gataullin and Rogerio Bispo of Brazil fought for the victory in the Long Jump, with both reaching 8.03. Gataullin’s second farthest was 7.98 to Bispo’s 7.95 to take the win.
European champion Ludmila Kolchanova won the women's Long Jump with a solid 6.82m leap, also among the farthest this season. It's worth pointing out that all her jumps were very consistent, ranging rom 6.72 up to 6.82. Marya Pankova got the second step of the podium (6.76) with Oksana Zhukovskaya (6.60) third.
In the men’s High Jump Aleksand Shustov and Yuriy Krymarenko each cleared the bar at 2.27 but Shustov won on count-back.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s Dmitriy Gluschenko took the 60m in 6.65 ahead of Briton Rikki Fifton (6.71) and Canadian Anson Henry (6.72). Jeanette Kwakye of Great Britain won the women’s race with a season’s best 7.18, well ahead of Nigerian Franka Idoko (7.28) and Ghanaian Vida Anim (7.33). Edward Kebet Mutayi was second to none at Men's 3000m, winning in 8:04.08, leaving behind his Russian opponent Sergei Ivanov (8:07.61). The men’s 60m Hurdles were dominated by Igor Peremota (7.56) while Tatyana Degtyareva (8.02) took the women’s. In all, athletes from 16 countries participated.
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
