Svetlana Feofanova at the 2010 Russian Indoor Championships (© Nikolay Matveev)
Moscow, RussiaIn the Vladimir Kuts indoor hall in the Russian capital the first day of the Russia Indoor Championships took place yesterday (Fri 26).
The day centred on the preliminary rounds on the track and qualifications competitions in the field events, though 7 titles were decided.
With World recordholder and three-time reigning World Indoor champion Yelena Isinbayeva allowed to pass these championships to concentrate on her preparations for the World Indoor Championships in Doha, it was left to former World champion and record breaker Svetlana Feofanova, 29, to show her prowess in the Pole Vault. Feofanova who won in Birmingham last weekend in her season’s best of 4.72m, took the title with a 4.75 vault. Second place went to Tatyana Polnova with 4.70 and the third was taken by Alexandra Kerjashova, 4.65.
In the women’s 60m Hurdles, Aleksandra Fedoriva who was part of the quartet that took 4x100m Olympic gold in Beijing, established a Russian U23 record in a time of 7.91sec to win the senior indoor title; the fastest so far by a European this season. Tatyana Dektjareva was runner-up (8.02) and third was Alexandra Antonova (8.05).
World Indoor bronze medallist Yevgeniy Borisov won the men’s hurdles in 7.59 sec with 20-year-old Alexey Dremin second with 7.73, and Konstantin Shabanov making up the podium in 7.74. Igor Peremota was disqualified for a false start.
The flat 60 metre races threw-up some surprises. There was no shock of course that European Indoor champion Yevgeniya Polyakova, who was also the lead-off runner in the Russian 4x100 Beijing victory, took the women’s dash, but the second and third places were not so expected - Svetlana Nabokina (7.22) and Yulia Katsura (7.23). It was the men’s 60 that produced the biggest surprise, with a 6.66sec PB victory for the previously unheralded 23-year-old Alexander Vashurkin. The same time was set by runner-up Roman Smirnov with the photo-finish needed to settle the title. Third went to Michael Idrisov (6.67).
Yelena Zadorozhnaya won the women’s 3000m in 8:55.36. She is trained by her husband Anatoly Tsvetkov, and this victory marks a return to top form since she started a family three years ago. Second place went to Oksana Beljakova (9:00.48) with Natalia Popkova in 9:06.56.
Alexander Orlov won the men’s 7:57.64, it was a solo run, with well beaten Andrey Safronov (7:59.17) and Andrey Farnosov (7:59.54) taking the minor places.
Rostislav Orlov and Nikolai Dolgopolov for the IAAF
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