Ivan Ukhov is unchallenged in his quest for European Indoor gold as he sails over 2.32m with ease (© Getty Images)
The third day of the AllRussian Championships in Cheboksary (Sat 25) began with a small sensation. The Olympic Games silver medallist in the women’s Javelin Throw Mariya Abakumova was beaten by Valerya Zabruskova, who threw the spear 61.90m to her compatriot’s 60.72m.
There was also an interesting struggle in the men’s event too. The 36-year-old veteran Sergey Makarov, the 2003 World champion who has two Olympic bronzes to his credit, won with 84.24m beating the 10 years younger Ilia Korotkov by a metre (83.24). The bronze medallist was Alexander Ivanov (82.40).
But, of course at the centre of attention on day three was the men’s High Jump with Ivan Ukhov and Yaroslav Rybakov who coming into these championships had 2009 bests of 2.34m standing them in joint second place on the world season list which has been led since April by USA’s Andra Manson with 2.35m.
Today Ukhov took the 2.35m bar at his first attempt and became the national champion, with Rybakov also in superb form taking that height at his third attempt. Third place with an outdoor personal best of 2.33m went to Andrey Tereshin.
The women’s Pole Vault with 4.65m was won by Beijing fourth placer Yuliya Golubchikova. In second place came Anastasiya Shvedova with 4.60m, and in third was Tatyana Polnova (4.50).
The track racing concentrated on women’s and men’s 5000 metres. In the former, there was a European lead of 14:42.06 set by Maria Konovalova, the Olympic 10,000m fifth placer, who has already taken the 10,000m silver at these championships. Second place was taken by Ksenia Agafonova (15:06.98) with Elizaveta Grechishnikova in third (15:16.88).
Alexander Orlov won the men’s race in 13:36.80.
Nickolay Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov
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