Russian W4x400 DEPTH!

World Leading 4x400m despite terrible weather - Russian Champs - Final Day
Friday 16 June 2006
Tula, Russia - Heavy rain and cold autumn winds spoiled the last day of competition at the Russian National Championships. Bad weather was the main reason for some below-par results in almost every event. However the Women’s 4x400m relay team of the Sverdlovskiy region still managed to clock 3:25.18, a new World Season’s best!

The excellent result came as no surprise given the line-up of the team which included talented runners such as Svetlana Pospelova, Olga Kotlyarova, Tatyana Veshkurova and Yulia Mulukova.

The team of Moscow which counted three World champions (Natalya Nazarova, Natalya Ivanova and Tatyana Levina) finished second with a time of 3:29.21.

Svetlana Feofanova of Russia qualifies in the women’s Pole Vault
(Getty Images)

The Men’s 4x400m relay was also dominated by a team of the Sverdlovskiy region who celebrated victory in 3:07.74.

The High Jump run-up sector was flooded with water and at times it resembled more a diving contest than an athletics event. But even with such disastrous conditions three high jumpers managed to clear 2.28m!

A 21-year-old student from the working town of Shakhti Andrei Silnov won the title on count-back. The young man is considered as one of the best Russian hopes for the future of the event. He was followed by the rising star of high jumping Ivan Ukhov and Andrei Tereshin.

Women’s long jumpers excel

Oksana Udmurtova and Ludmila Kolchanova were expected to battle for gold but given the poor weather conditions no-one could have predicted the two would actually achieve World class level performances.

Both athletes landed at 6.97m with the title being awarded to Udmurtova who had a better second attempt (6.82m) by only two centimetres! Kolchanova took a well deserved silver medal with Olga Goncharova taking bronze with a 6.65m performance.

4.55m is enough for Feofanova to take gold

The women’s Pole Vault was dominated by Svetlana Feofanova. The silver medal winner at the Moscow IAAF World Indoor Championships cleared 4.55m and decided to stop at this mark. The wind was too strong and it even became dangerous for the light tiny athlete to compete with such poor conditions.

Tatyana Polnova cleared 4.50m, a performance which was enough to take silver and Yulia Golubchikova stopped at 4.40m for bronze.

And the rest…

A former Olympic medallist Irina Khudorozhkina turned out to be the unexpected winner in the women’s Shot Put with a best effort of 18.84m. Olga Ryabinkina, the 2005 World silver medallist was evidently upset by her second place (18.56m). Anna Avdeeva took bronze with 18.37m.

26-year-old Lada Chernova won the national Javelin Throw title with a 61.25m release while Ekaterina Rybko had to be content with second (59.48m) and Marya Abakumova third (58.29m).

The Athens Triple Jump bronze medallist Danil Burkenya won the national title with his season’s best jump of 17.42m ahead of Igor Spasovkhodskiy (17.12m) and Aleksandr Sergeev (16.98m).

Aleksandr Krivchonkov won the 1500m in 3:39.70 with 5000m national champion Sergei Ivanov taking his second medal of the competition as he was the runner-up in 3:41.21. Andrei Kuznetsov finished third in 3.42.03.

2006 World Indoor silver medallist Yelena Soboleva took the 1500m national title with a time of 4.00.47 ahead of virtually unknown Natalya Pantelleva who managed to finish second in 4.00.81. 2001 World champion at 5000m Olga Yegorova took bronze in 4.01.31.

To the joy of the handful of enthusiastic fans the 4x100m women’s relay was won by the home team in 44.73 while a team from the Kaliningrad region won the unexpected gold in the men’s sprint relay (40.61).

Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF