Tatyana Lysenko (RUS) (© Getty Images)
Tula, RussiaThe national record holder Tatyana Lysenko with a throw of 75.95m equalled her own recently set national standard on the fourth day of competition (Wed 13) at the Russian Championships which are taking place in the Arsenal Stadium in Tula.
On the track, Olympic 800m champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy bettered his personal best at 1500m hundred by 3 seconds but Yuliya Chizhenko’s winning result at the same distance in the women’s 1500m of 3:58.68 was some what more impressive on the world scale.
Lysenko comes close to the World record
Tatyana Lysenko who rather unexpectedly blasted out a national record of 75.95m on the 29 June, proved her phenomenal current seam of form by matching that mark exactly to win today’s Russian title yesterday>
Asked before the final if she was planning to beat the World record, the answer from the 21 year-old, 17th IAAF World Ranked athlete, was a negative – “the main aim is to win the national championship and to go to Helsinki”.
But the new champion of Russia from the little town of Bataisk which is in the Rostov-on-Don region nearly made it with a 75.95 throw! The World record of Romania’s Mihaela Melinte is 76.07m (1999).
Russia’s Olympic champion Olga Kuzenkova reached 73.59m to take second place, and the bronze medal winner was Gulfiya Khanafeeva who reached out to 70.17m.
Excellent results in the women’s 1500m
The women’s 1500m distance is always an attraction at the Russian national championships. In Tula, the distance was won by Yuliya Chizhenko in 3.58.68, which is the fastest time in the world this season. Olga Yegorova, the former 5000m World champion and one of only two women who had gone below 4mins this season prior to today, got the silver medal with 4.00.69. The 22-years old Yelena Soboleva finished 3rd in 4.01.14.
Borzakovskiy - 1500m PB
Yuriy Borzakovskiy won the men’s 1500m, in the process bettering his personal best by 3 seconds – 3:40.28. A well defeated second place went to Sergey Ivanov in 3:41.27, while the many time champion of Russia, Vyacheslav Shabunin was third in 3.41.70.
The 19-year old former Discus thrower clears 2.30 in High Jump
There was another national junior record in the men’s High Jump record for 19-years old Ivan Ukhov who cleared 2.30m, so equalling the result he had set recently at the national junior championships. Ukhov started high jumping only just over a year ago and before that had been a Discus thrower.
In yesterday’s competition Ukhov got the bronze medal beaten by his two more experienced senior opponents who cleared 2.32. The former World champion Vyacheslav Voronin, who took a memorable victory over Stefan Holm in Lausanne last week, won on count-back ahead of 22 year-old Andrei Tereshin who had to settle for the silver medal.
The 2000 Olympic champion Sergey Klyugin cleared 2.28m for 4th place and Pavel Fomenko finished 5th with 2.25. The Coaches’ Council permitted the leader of the Russian high jumpers this season, Yaroslav Rybakov, not to compete.
Good quality Long Jump even without top two
Tatyana Lebedeva – the Olympic Long Jump champion – and the world season leader in the event, Irina Simigina also got the same permission to miss the championships, but even without them the results in women’s Long Jump were extremely high.
Tatyana Kotova, the Olympic silver medallist, who is returning from injury landed at 6.96m, the 2nd best leap in the world this season. Oksana Udmurtova finished second with 6.85m, while Natalya Lebusova got the bronze medal with 6.78.
Ludmilla Kolchanova and Tatyana Ter-Mesrobyan, 37, were just 4cm behind in fourth and fifth places, and even Tatyana Ivanova was able to take 6th with a leap of 6.70.
But in the absence of the Lebedeva, who is of course also the double World champion, the women’s Triple Jump was only the shadow of its usual self at the Russian Championships. Nadezhda Bazhanova got the gold medal via a good 14.28m effort, Yelena Ivanova was the silver medallist thanks to a 14.21m jump, and Irina Vasilieva got the bronze, 13.95m.
Men’s Triple Jump was dominated by the European Indoor champion Igor Spasovkhodskiy with a quality performance of 17.30m. Victor Guzshinskiy was 2nd on 17.10, with the Olympic bronze medallist of Athens Olympics Danila Burkenya, a close third with 17.08m.
In the men’s Discus Throw, the victory was gained by the 22-years-old Bogdan Pizchalnikov with a 63.57m release. The experienced Dmitriy Shevchenko was 2nd with 62.26m, the only one of his six efforts which brought any sort of success. Yuriy Seskin was third (60.55).
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
