Yuliya Golubchikova of Russia competes in the Pole Vault Final (© Getty Images)
The host city of the Winter Olympics of 2014 was the venue for the first major tournament of the new Russian season, the Cup of the Caucases which was held on 27 – 28 May in Sochi.
In the absence of Yelena Isinbayeva the stadium witnessed the triumph of Yuliya Golubchikova in women’s Pole Vault. She cleared the bar at 4.70m which is the best result of the season in Europe and the second best in the world. It means that Isinbayeva and the ex-world record holder Svetlana Feofanova will receive the strong support at the Beijing Olympics where this trio should be expected to fight for the medals.
In men's Pole Vault, the World Indoor champion Evgeniy Lukyanenko suffered an unexpected defeat clearing only 5.50m. Pavel Gerasimov won with 5.60m.
Anna Bulgakova took the Women's Hammer Throw with a result that is very encouraging for the beginning of the season. Her 73.05m left behind the well-known Gulfiya Khanafeyeva - 71.39m.
Two Russians will have a reasonable chance to get to the final in Olympic women's Shot Put in China. Anna Omarova was first on the podium in Sochi with a release of 19.29m and Irina Khudorozhkina was second (18.77m).
In the men's Shot Put, two eternal rivals were striving for the maiden season domestic glory. Ivan Ushkov won with 21.01m with Pavel Sofyin second on 20.63m.
The men's Long Jump is not considered to be one of the strongest events in Russia but this time 20-year-old Dmitriy Plotnir made the fans happy by landing at 8.10m. Ruslan Gataulin also made it past 8.00m, by one centimetre.
However, the rain did prevent the men’s High Jump being a good competition with European champion Andrei Silnov and Aleksandr Shustov both clearing only 2.24m. Silnov won on count-back.
Olga Kotlyarova remains as beautiful a runner as she used to be. She was second to none at the 800m winning in 2:01.46. Anna Alminova was the runner-up (2:02.45) but she triumphed at 2000m (5:42.95) defeating the World Steeplechase champion Yekaterina Volkova (5:50.57).
Tatyana Veshkurova won the women’s 400m, 51.05.
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
