Yuliya Pechonkina of Russia on her way to victory in her 400m Hurdles semi final in Osaka 2007 (© Getty Images)
The town of Zhukovskiy that is not far from Moscow and will turn into the capital of Russian athletics on Sunday 5 July, when the 51st edition of Brothers Znamenskiy Memorial will be held here.
The Znamenskiy Memorial is one of a select group of Area meetings at which points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, to be held on 12-13 September in Thessaloniki, Greece.
14 disciplines will be contested - the men will compete in 6 events – 100m; 400m; 800m; Pole Vault; Triple Jump and Shot Put; the women’s programme has 8 events – 200m; 400m; 800m; 100m H; 400m H; High Jump; Long Jump and Javelin.
There are also three nationals events. The most important of which is the men’s 3000m.
Borzakovskiy, the main attraction
The men’s 800m will be in the centre of everybody’s attention. 2004 Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy, a native of Zhukovskiy and the honoured citizen of the town, will try his best in the final event of the programme. He’ll just be back home from the Norwegian leg of the AF Golden League where tonight he sped to a classic home straight late win in 1:44.42.
In the women’s event, European Indoor champion Mariya Savinova who produced the best result of the current world outdoor season with a time for the two laps of 1:57.90 in Moscow, will also be ready to run as fast as that and even faster.
In the men’s 100m the invited guest star is the 2003 World champion of 2003 Kim Collins (SKN) who was disqualified at the recent Moscow Open. Now he is very much eager to prove that it was just a sudden error.
Other guest stars are Paul Burgess from Australia in men’s Pole Vault, who has a personal best of 6m set in 2005, and Bulgarian Momchil Karailiev who has triple jumped 17.41m this season.
2005 World champion Pechonkina to make comeback
There will also be a comeback attempted by Yuliya Pechonkina. The World record holder for the 400m Hurdles has not run the hurdles since 9 September 2007, the summer in which she took the World silver medal in Osaka, when defending her World title.
AAnd after jumping 6.93m this week in Moscow, 2004 Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva goes in the Triple Jump in Madrid on Saturday (4), but is intending to return to the Long Jump again in Zhukovskiy on Sunday. If she manages this travelling feat then the athlete task she has is to again face World Indoor champion Naide Gomes of Portugal who beat her at the Moscow Open tournament with 6.94m.
Other favourites at the meeting are Beijing 400m fourth placer Yuliya Guzhina in the 200m, and Olympic silver medallist Marya Abakumova in the Javelin Throw.
The European Indoor champion Antonina Krivoshapka is getting closer and closer to the sacred 50 seconds mark for 400m, and perhaps the friendly but severe rivalry with Tatyana Litvinova will encourage her to break her personal best.
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
