Yelena Slesarenko of Russia clears 2.06 to win gold in Athens (© Getty Images)
Moscow, RussiaThe 10th Cup of Moscow “High Jumping with Music” was a great success on Saturday (22) with Olympic women’s champion Yelena Slesarenko and Andrey Tereshin respectively taking 1.94m and 2.30m victories.
Crowds not put off by terrible Russian winter weather
Even the veterans do not remember such winter weather as the Russian capital is presently experiencing. The daily temperature in Moscow is minus 30 for the second week running and at night its even worse then that – 35-37 degrees below zero have become quite “normal”.
But in spite of the extreme cold the Sport Complex named after the famous Russian runners, the brothers Znamenskiy was crammed with people. The police at the entrance were surprised: “We didn’t expect crowds this evening," said one officer. "The attendance at nearly all public events in Moscow is so low because of the catastrophically low temperatures, that our help is not even required”. But athletic fans ignored the natural disaster. The public – mostly young and enthusiastic – paid absolutely no attention to the severe winter and clapped in time to the loud music to inspire the best Russian high jumpers. And may be it was one of the reasons why the results were excellent for the beginning of the indoor season.
Slesarenko makes a strong 1.94m comeback
Anna Chicherova, the European Indoor champion of 2005, was at the hall even though she was not competing - “I’m doing my best to get well-prepared for the “Russian Winter” tournament (IAAF Indoor permit) that starts on Wednesday," explained Anna. “I hope you won’t be disappointed by my performance there.”
Heading the quality women’s field on Saturday was 2004 Olympic champion Yelena Slesarenko. Six jumpers started at 1.75m, and all cleared it, then 1.80m and 1.85m as well. Marina Kuptsova, 24, the 2003 World silver medallist was the centre of attention. She was seriously injured in the Olympic season of 2004 and her recovery has been rather slow but she returned to the sector and to the joy of her fans cleared 1.85m which was not that bad for a beginning. Naturally her technique is not as impeccable as it used to be, but still she looked self-assured. Olga Kaliturina who also failed to conquer 1.89m ended up 6th and Kuptsova 5th overall on count back.
World Junior silver medallist Svetlana Shkolina cleared 1.89m, and was close to success at 1.92 but her natural lack of experience was evident and she ended the competition in 4th.
The name of Ekaterina Savchenko doesn’t say much even to the specialists. But the fans knew her as Aleksandrova before. She has since married her coach, and so changed her family name. Here in Moscow she cleared 1.89m taking 3rd place on count back, while Victoriya Seryogina was 2nd, and looked more than satisfied by her achievement.
And now back to Slesarenko. It was her only second start after sustaining an injury at the World Championships last summer in Helsinki, and she is evidently over her troubles as up to 1.98m she cleared all her heights on the first attempt. Success at 1.92m took all three leaps but she was technically better at 1.94m - joint world season lead - having cleared it on her second attempt but eventually met failure at 1.96m.
“Its better than a mediocre level,” commented her coach Boris Gorkov about the performance. “But it isn’t her maximum. We have time to improve.”
Tereshin follows the example of Sergey Klyugin
Six male high jumpers were also cheered on by the public. Two of them are celebrities in Russia - the 2000 Olympic champion Sergey Klyugin, and the 2005 World bronze medallist Yaroslav Rybakov - and are always at the centre of public attention.
But this time a new hero emerged whose name is Andrey Tereshin. He comes from the same Russian town Kineshma where Klyugin was also born. Now he has moved to Ryazan which is not far from Moscow. During the Moscow tournament Tereshin was second to none, as though the pedigree of his opponents were really strong their form did not match those expectations, and in turn the younster was at the top of his game..
Aleksey Dmitrik, who won the European Cup last year, was not at his best. Having cleared along with everyone else 2.10m, and 2.15m he also made 2.20 but ended up just 6th on count back. Likewise, Klyugin admitted that the tournament was only the beginning of the season for him, so his 2.20m clearance and his 5th place were not that disappointing. In fourth was Mikhail Tzvetkov also on 2.20m, and he was unlucky not to have cleared 2.24m.
The double Russian champion Pavel Fomenko looked extremely concentrated and though he cleared 2.24m only at the third attempt his technique was good, and it was with a gasp of disappointment that the crowd greeted his third failure at 2.28m.
Yaroslav Rybakov though did manage to clear 2.28m at the third attempt. His jumps were beautiful and the public clapped their hands until they hurt in appreciation of his talent. But his attempts at 2.30 were not successful, so Rybakov ended up in second.
So the win was taken by Andrey Tereshin, the revelation of the evening. The 23-year-old got a standing ovation from the crowd when he cleared 2.30m on the third try and in his post competition interview he confirmed his career was inspired by Klyugin’s example. There is little doubt he will go much higher this year.
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
