Svetlana Cherkasova of Russia - winner of heat four in the women's 800m (© Getty Images)
The Znamensky Memorial, IAAF GPII meeting held earlier this afternoon was highlighted by a powerful display of women’s 800m running. After yesterday’s bad weather, during the first day of non-GP competition, the rains went away and conditions were good.
The winner of the 800m was Svetlana Cherkasova, 27, who took an emphatic victory in a personal best of 1:56.93, and in the process pulled another four runners to sub-1:59 clockings, all of which were faster than the previous world season’s lead of 1:59.10 by Kenia Sinclair of Jamaica, in what has until now been a quiet summer for the two lap event.
Second came Zulia Calatayud of Cuba (1:58.07), with Russians Larisa Chzhao (1:58.35), Tatyana Andrianova (1:58.46) and Natalya Lavshuk (1:58.72), following a tight battle for the minor places.
Swift one lap running
In the women’s 400m Hurdles, World record holder Yuliya Pechonkina took a 53.89 win. A great run but this was short of her own world season’s lead of 53.05 that she ran on 13 June in her season’s opener at the distance in Tula.
In the flat one lap, European Indoor champion Svetlana Pospelova won in 50.30, with Olesya Zykina, the European outdoor gold medallist, second in 50.37, and Marya Lisnichenko, third – 51.58. The well-known specialist at this distance, Natalya Antyukh was only 5th – 52.29.
Sub-4 for Yegorova
Former World 5000m champion Olga Yegorova sped to a sub-4mins time in the 1500m, winning in 3:59.47 - the second fastest time in the world this summer - with Yuliya Chizhenko (4:00.09) and Yelena Kanales (4:03.53), also from Russia following her home.
Kanales was leading in this race but failed to maintain the speed during the last lap. Yelena Zadorozhnaya, who seemed to be the favourite before the start, finished in 4th. Still even her result was not bad at all – 4:06.63.
Great depth in Long Jump
Oksana Udmurtova in the women's Long Jump landed at 6.86m which is the second best in the world this season. Lyudmila Kolchanova was second (6.74m) and Yuliya Zinovyeva was only 2cm behind – 6.72. Tatyana Ivanova was 4th – 6.66 and Natalya Lebusova was 5th – 6.56m.
Krivelyova’s comeback
Reigning World champion, and also the Olympic winner of 1992 is back in the Shot Put circle again at the age of 36 years. It was her first performance after her bronze medal finish at the Athens Olympics last summer.
Today she took just fourth place with a below par result of 17.85m but that was achieved with only one attempt, after which she played no further part in the contest.
Fellow 2004 Olympian Olga Ryabinkina, who won the European Cup last weekend with the second best mark of the summer, was the winner in Kazan with 19.02m. Olga Ivanova was 2nd – 18.29 and Oksana Chibikova was 3rd – Chibisova was 3rd – 17.89.
Yuliya Gushchina clocked 22.94 to win the 200m but the second place finish of Olga Zaytseva was kind of a surprise (23.04) as normally she is running 400m. Here in Kazan she managed to defeat a lot of the well recognised specialists at 200m including the 2004 Olympian Yekaterina Kondratyeva, who finished third – 23.09.
The result of the women’s Pole Vault was disappointing. In the absence of all the main Russian stars, it was Anastasya Kiryanova who won clearing only 4.20m. Yelena Kutuzova was 2nd – 3.60m. Others failed even to clear the initial height.
It was Yekaterina Aleksandrova who took the women’s High Jump in 1.95m, with Corinee Müller of Switzerland second with 1.92, and Viktoriya Seryogina behind with 1.89.
No main prize for the Russians at 5000m
But Russian runners were intended to win the main prize at 5000m. They took the lead clocking 2.38 – 2.40 for the first kilometres, eventually lost out to the Kenyan guests. Edvin Soi is only 19-years-old but he finished the distance with a time that is not that bad at all for his age – 13:26.26. His compatriots Shadrak Lagat (13:26.81) and Joseph Kosgei (13:27.18) came next.
Eric N’dri from Ivory Coast won the 100m (10.31), Russian Andrey Rudnitzkiy, the 400m (46.48), while Aleksandr Derevyagin dominated the 400m Hurdles (50.76), and Ramil Artikulov won the 800m – 1:47.55.
Olympic medallist beats top Cubans in the Triple Jump
There were two 17m plus jumps (17.05 and 17.03) for Olympic bronze medal winner Danil Burkenya over David Giralt from Cuba who took second with 17.00m exactly. World silver medallist Yoandri Betanzos, the Cuban champion, was third with 16.82m.
It looks that Dmitriy Shevchenko has recovered from injury. His result in the Discus Throw was rather encouraging – 63.62m. Abbas Samimi from Iran took second, 63.11. Aleksandr Borichevskiy celebrated his 35th birthday today and got a special gift from the organizers. He also finished third – 61.76.
There were no injuries today in the Hammer Throw sector - let us remind ourselves that Guliya Khanafeeva got injured yesterday - the men’s tournament being won by the experienced athlete Ilya Konovalov – 78.70m. Aleksie Zagorniy was 2nd – 77.22 and Sergey Kirmasov was 3rd – 75.80.
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
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