Alina Talay of Belarus in the 60m Hurdles (© Getty Images)
Sprint hurdler Alina Talay was considered the best athlete of the Belarusian Indoor Championships in Mogilev this week (5-6), after notching up a sprint double in the 60m flat and 60m Hurdles.
The World indoor 60m Hurdles bronze medallist was never seriously challenged in the 60m Hurdles, winning by more than half a second in 8.01 – just six hundredths off her PB.
But competition in the 60m flat earlier in the day was fiercer and she was up against two of her 4x100m team-mates from the London 2012 Olympics – Yuliya Balykina and Katsiaryna Hanchar. However, no one could catch Talay after she got away to a blistering start and she won with a personal best of 7.35, breaking the 7.41 PB she set in the heats.
Fellow sprint hurdler Maksim Lynsha was another top performer. The Olympic semi-finalist won the men’s 60m Hurdles in 7.68, just 0.06 away from his lifetime best.
European bronze medallist Aliaksei Tsapik successfully defended his national indoor Triple Jump title with a jump of 16.44m.
The men’s 1500m held the audience in suspense from the beginning to the end. Siarhei Platonau tried his best to take command of the race, but Ukraine’s Volodymyr Kyts wasn’t ready to throw in the white flag. With a strong finish, Kyts won in 3:45.29 with Platonau a few strides behind.
European 800m finalist Maryna Arzamasava, a 1:59.30 performer at best, regained the national indoor title she won two years ago, clocking 2:04.25.
Heptathlon specialist Yana Maksimava, who currently leads the world in the Pentathlon with her 4624 score, focused on just two events in Mogilev, winning the High Jump by equalling her indoor PB of 1.90m, and setting a PB of 8.54 in finishing third behind Talay in the 60m Hurdles.
European silver medallist Volha Sudareva set a season’s best of 6.60m to win the Long Jump, beating Olympic finalist Veranika Shutkova and national Triple Jump record-holder Kseniya Dzetsuk.
After recently breaking 19 metres for the first time in her career, Alena Kopets was an easy winner of the women’s Shot with a throw of 18.73m. In the absence of double Olympic finalist Pavel Lyzhin, 20-year-old Michael Abramuk won the men’s event, setting an outright PB of 18.74m.
Mikhail Dubitski for the IAAF
Selected results
MEN
60m
1 Pavel Kanstaniuk 6.86
2 Aliaksandr Korzun 6.89
400m
1 Mikita Yakauleu 48.74
1500m
1 Volodymyr Kyts (UKR) 3:45.29
2 Siarhei Platonau 3:45.91
3000m
1 Illia Slavinski 8:05.66
60m Hurdles
1 Maksim Lynsha 7.68
High Jump
1 Siarhei Haliashou 2.23m
2 Artsiom Zaitsau 2.20m
2 Kanstanstin Karpau 2.20m
Triple Jump
1 Aliaksei Tsapik 16.44m
2 Maksim Nesterenka 16.25m
Shot
1 Mikhal Abramchuk 18.74m
WOMEN
60m
1 Alina Talay 7.35
2 Katsiaryna Hanchar 7.40
3 Volha Astashka 7.55
400m
1 Yuliya Yurenya 54.06
2 Ilona Usovich 54.15
800m
1 Maryna Arzamasava 2:04.25
1500m
1 Natallia Karieva 4:18.56
2 Sviatlana Kudzelich 4:20.85
3000m
1 Sviatlana Kudzelich 9:13.57
60m Hurdles
1 Alina Talay 8.01
2 Katsiaryna Netsvetaeva 8.53
3 Yana Maksimava 8.54
High Jump
1 Yana Maksimava 1.90m
Long Jump
1 Volha Sudareva 6.60m
2 Veranika Shutkova 6.36m
Triple Jump
1 Natallia Viatkina 13.61m
Shot
1 Alena Kopets 18.73m
2 Aliona Dubitskaya 17.87m
3 Vera Yepimashka 17.50m
