Previews02 Mar 2005


European Indoor Championships - Women's Events PREVIEW

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A smiling Yelena Isinbayeva after her 4.89m World Indoor record in Liévin (© AFP/Getty Images)

With the year’s most prolific record breaker and a slew of world leaders ready to wage their final battles of the winter, the women’s side of the programme at this weekend’s 28th European Indoor Championships will provide a climactic end to the international indoor season  – and perhaps a glimpse of what is to come at August’s 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland.

Think only ‘Isinbayeva’ and no one else!

As was the case in her three outings this winter, Olympic Pole Vault gold medallist Yelena Isinbayeva will be the star attraction in Madrid as well. With three World Indoor records in as many competitions - all with plenty of room to spare - the only question remaining is how high the 22-year-old Russian will choose to jump as she caps her historic indoor campaign.

After a 4.89 clearance in Lievin last Saturday that rewrote Pole Vault technique textbooks, Isinbayeva took a fair stab at 5.05, the highest vault ever attempted in competition. While expecting another attempt at such a height might be a stretch, there’s little reason to believe that anything less than a 4.92 effort, equalling her absolute World record, would satisfy the fiercely competitive Russian - along with athletics fans around the world - before she embarks on a well-deserved and record bonus-fueled spring break. With no reported World record bonus offered by the EAA, what she will ultimately jump is open to wild speculation. But even her chief rivals admit that the only battle in Madrid, besides guessing contests on how high Isinbayeva will go, will be the one for the remaining two medals.

While Isinbayeva has spoiled fans this season with her apparent toying with the World Indoor record, her chief international rivals have quietly spent the winter rewriting the world lists, displaying a depth the event, now a fully grown-up part of the athletics programme, has never before seen.

Anna Rogowska, Poland’s Olympic bronze medallist, vaulted 4.75 in Donetsk last month; only three have ever gone higher. Yet while Rogowska has gone higher, teammate Monica Pyrek, with three 4.70 efforts since 20-February, arrives in Madrid as the more consistent of the pair in recent weeks, setting up what is just the beginning of the fiercest athletics rivalry this central European nation has ever seen. As Pyrek, the 2001 World bronze medallist said in Donetsk two weeks ago: "We want to make the Pole Vault the top event in Polish athletics."

Closely trailing the Polish duo for a podium finish is Russian Tatyana Polnova, who has cleared 4.60 this year, but has an indoor PB of 4.71. With a pair of 4.60 efforts, German hope Carolin Hingst is approaching high end consistency as well.

Klüft - Pentathlon

While Isinbayeva will begin her competition on Friday, another Olympic champion, Carolina Klüft, will be beginning and ending hers. Since claiming the bronze in Vienna, the Swede has become the world’s preeminent multi-event practitioner, and is the heavy favourite here. Olympic bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton of Great Britain is a solid podium hope, as is world leader Natalya Dobrynska of Ukraine who took silver behind Klüft at last year’s World Indoor Championships.

Sprints

Europe's five fastest women of 2005 - all among the nine fastest in the world this year - will take to the blocks Friday morning (4 March). Rounding into top form in recent weeks is European 100m record holder Christine Arron of France, who clocked a near-PB 7.10 in Lievin on Saturday. Not too far behind on the yearly list is Belgian sprint star Kim Gevaert, the defending champion, who’s run 7.14 this winter, just 2/100s shy of the PB that propelled her to silver at last year’s World Indoor Championships. Yelena Nevmerzhitskaya (7.15) of Belarus, Russian Larisa Kruglova (7.16) and Yeoryía Koklóni (7.18) of Greece have each dipped under 7.20 and could all emerge as medal threats.

A similar scenario will be on display in the 200m, the last time the event will be contested in the continental indoor championship. Europe's fastest five are among the world's fastest ten, and again Arron tops the list after her 22.69 last Saturday in Lievin. Yuliya Gushchina, who will celebrate her 22nd birthday on Friday, leads a strong Russian trio who all ran their seasonal bests at the Russian Winter meeting in Moscow on 22-January: Gushchina (22.84), Natalya Ivanova (23.18) and Yekaterina Kondratyeva (23.19). Austrian veteran Karin Mayr-Krifka, who won in Karlsruhe last month in 23.01, is also a solid medal threat.
 
Russia’s deep 400m talent pool will be on vivid display in Madrid. Making the trip to the Spanish capital will be the top three finishers from the 11-February national championships: Svetlana Pospelova (51.57), Irina Rosikhina (51.58), and 400m Hurdles World record holder Yuliya Pechonkina (51.91). With that trio, respectively the third, fourth and ninth fastest in the world this winter, forming the backbone of the Russian relay squad, the 4x400 is virtually theirs to lose. Belorussian champion and national record Svetlana Usovich - 51.73 this season - seems to have the best shot at breaking up a Russian podium sweep, while Ukrainian Nataliya Pyhyda comes to Madrid on the heels of three consecutive runner-up finishes.

Middle & Long Distance

Three years ago in Vienna, Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak capped her coming out indoor season by shattering the World indoor record in the 800m with her 1:55.82 run. So fierce was her competitive rivalry with Steffi Graf that the Austrian too dipped under Christine Wachtel’s 14-year-old standard of 1:56.40. This year Ceplak returns as the Olympic bronze medallist in the event, but after a trio of less-than-competitive races, only the fourth fastest this year among Europeans. World leader Larisa Zhao (1:57.53) returns to action after three weeks off, hoping to duplicate her form outside of her home country. But perhaps the biggest challenge Ceplak will face will come from Spaniard Mayte Martinez, who narrowly missed her own national record in Stockholm two weeks ago with a 1:59.61 runner-up finish behind Maria Mutola. At the 2003 World Indoor Championships, Martinez denied Ceplak a podium finish and in Madrid, will have the support of the Palacio de Deportes crowd. Russian Irina Vashentseva (1:58.48) has also dipped under two minutes, and could be a factor as well.

The world’s ten fastest 1500 runners are all in the line-up in Madrid, led by Poland’s Lidia Chojecka, who emerged on the middle distance scene after her silver medal at these championships in 1998. The 28-year-old won four of her five races this winter at distances ranging from 1000 to 3000 metres. Her only loss came at this distance to Romanian Elena Iagar last Thursday on her last visit to Madrid. Alesya Turova of Belarus is the defending silver medallist and is the second fastest of the year (4:05.93).

Jo Pavey, the sixth fastest-ever in the 3000, arrives in Madrid as the British women's squad's top hope for gold. This year, the 31-year-old has clocked 8:41.43, more than six seconds faster than the next European, Austrian Susanne Pumper, who ran a 8:47.51 national record behind Pavey in Stuttgart in late January. Germany’s Sabrina Mockenhaupt (8:48.57 in Stuttgart), Ukraine’s Tetyana Holovchenko (8:49.80) along with the Polish duo of Chojecka and Wioletta Janowska can be expected to play pivotal roles in the medal hunt.

60m Hurdles

Five of the eight fastest hurdlers of the year - including the four fastest - will toe the line in Madrid. Co-season world leaders Irina Shevchenko of Russia and Swede Susanna Kallur have each clocked 7.90, but the 29-year-old Russian has struggled in her races since, while the Swede is undefeated in five races, clocking 7.95 or faster in four. Spain’s Glory Alozie (7.92) and German Kirsten Bolm (7.93) have performed well this season as has Briton Sarah Claxton, who lowered the British record to 7.96 in Sheffield in mid-February.

Field Events

With reigning World Indoor silver medallist Anna Chicherova the only jumper to have scaled two metres this winter, it's been a sub-par season in the women's High Jump. Just ten have bettered 1.94 this season; not surprisingly, all are Europeans and six of those will compete in Madrid. Chicherova leads the field, but Spaniard Ruth Beita, who cleared a season’s best 1.96 on the same track last week, is looking for an upset. After her runner-up finish at the national championships, Russian selectors have given 20-year-old Tatyana Kivimyagi (1.95) a chance in the spotlight, while Romanian champion Oana Pantelimon and another Russian, Yekaterina Aleksandrova, have also bettered 1.95 this year.

With World leader Klüft opting for just the Pentathlon, the Long Jump is perhaps the most wide open event of the weekend. On paper, Romanian champion Angelica Badea looks to be the favourite. The 29-year-old reached 6.72 last month, the second furthest leap of the year and a massive PB. Her teammate Adina Anton, just 20, jumped 6.65 in Bucharest on 6 February to beat Badea, but with eight others in the field who have reached 6.60 to 6.66 this season, the battle should be a fierce one.18-year-old Czech Denisa Šcerbová did away with the junior record formalities with an outright national record 6.64 and could provide one of the biggest surprises.

Like its sister event, there is no clear favourite in the Triple Jump. Here Europeans too boast the year’s finest depth, with 15 of the year’s top 16 jumpers from the continent. Adelina Gavrila, another Romanian national champion, is the world leader at 14.58, with three others in the field boasting jumps of 14.41 or better this season. Among them, a pair of Italians, Magdelin Martinez (14.52) and Simona La Mantia (14.41), both clear podium favourites. Russians are strong here as well, with Viktoriya Gurova (14.43) and Yelena Oleynikova (14.33) expected to be in contention.

Not surprisingly, the season’s top ten shot putters are all Europeans, and eight of those are set to compete in Madrid. Olga Ryabinkina, who threw 18.92 to win the Russian title last month, the second farthest of the year, leads the pack. Germany’s Petra Lammert, who will also be celebrating a birthday in Madrid - her 21st - improved her PB to 18.65 in Nordhausen in late January, and followed up with an 18.58 toss to finish second at the national championships, is a solid medal favourite as well. Also expected to fight for the podium will be Polish veteran Krystyna Zabawska (18.39) and Italy’s Assunta Legnante (18.27).

Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

NB. a men's events preview will be published Thursday 3 March.

MADRID on the IAAF WEBSITE

The IAAF website will be publishing end of session - AM & PM -   reports during the three days of competition in Madrid (4 - 6 March), offering along with our usual mixture of feature stories and general news, comprehensive coverage of every significant event that occurs at the 28th European Indoor Championships.

Chris Turner
IAAF Editorial Manager 

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