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Sports Club Luch from Moscow will be aiming to win their 10th successive women’s title at the European Champions Club Cup Group A match in Valencia, Spain, this weekend, while the Russian club’s men’s team will be hoping to bounce back from second in Lagos last year to retain the title they won on home soil in 2004.
The Russian women’s hopes of continuing their domination of this 25-year-old team competition will be boosted by the presence of some well-known world and European medallists, including world triple jump bronze medallist Anna Pyatykh, two-time world indoor 400m champion Natalya Nazarova, 2003 European Under 23 200m bronze medallist Yuliya Gushchina, and 2003 European Under 23 steeplechase champion Lyubov Ivanova.
Last year Luch called on Olympic medallists Olga Kuzenkova in the hammer and Tatyana Kotova in the long jump to bring them a decisive victory on the second day in Portugal. Without those two seasoned competitors his year, they are likely to be pushed hard, particularly by the host club, Valencia CA Terra I Mar who finished third in 2005, 17 points behind the Russians, and were second to Luch between 2001 and 2004.
Boosted by home town advantage, Valencia will call on the experience of Belgium’s European indoor 60m champion Kim Gevaert in the 100m and 200m, Sydney Olympic silver medallist Glory Alozie in the 100m hurdles, and 1999 world champion Niurka Montalvo in the long jump. They will also be hoping for maximum points in the middle distances where Morocco’s world and Olympic silver medallist Hasna Benhassi takes on the 800m/1500m double.
Benhassi’s former club Panhellinios AC pipped Valencia to second place last year, and the Greeks will be strong challengers again, while Turkey’s Enka Spor Kulubu will be looking to world 5000m record holder Elvan Abeylegesse to bring valuable points in the distance races. The former Ethiopian goes in the 3000m and the 5000m, while Romania’s veteran discus thrower, Nicoleta Grasu, a former world medallist, is also competing for the Turkish side.
The Russians won’t have it all their own way, for Kenya’s Jeruto Kiptum, the world bronze medallist competing for Italian side Fondiaria Sai Atletica, will take on Ivanova in the steeplechase, and in the triple jump Pyatykh will face stiff competition from Kiptum’s teammate, Senegal’s former African champion Kene Ndoye, as well as the 1997 world champion Sarka Kasparkova of Czech club USK Praha.
But if it comes down to the final relay the Russians will take some beating. Luch have won the 4x400m at this event every year since 1996, and with Nazarova and Gushchina joined by their world indoor record breaking team mate Anastasiya Kapachinskaya they will again have a formidable team.
While the Moscow club won last year’s women’s title by 15 points, the men’s was a much closer affair, victory going to Fiamme Gialle by just two points. The Italians will defend their title in Valencia, ably served again by their 2003 world pole vault champion Giuseppe Gibilisco, plus Sydney Olympic silver medallist Nicola Vizzoni in the hammer, and national record holder Fabrizio Donato in the triple jump.
The Russian challenge will be led by the reigning world silver medal winning high jumper Yaroslav Rybakov. With the 1997 European junior triple jump champion Viktor Gushchinskiy and Russian 1500m and 3000m record holder Vyacheslav Shabunin in their line-up they will be hard to beat.
Sporting Clube Portugal, who have finished third in the last two competitions, will be relying heavily on two Olympic medallists – the 2004 Olympic shot put champion Yuriy Bilonog, who competes in the shot and the discus, and the Olympic and world 1500m bronze medallist Rui Silva, who will aim for a 1500m/3000m double.
It won’t be an entirely European affair, however. Greek side Panhellinios AC are represented by a couple of Kenyans – the Commonwealth Games steeplechase silver medallist Wesley Kiprotich, who will race in that event as well as the 5000m, and the former world junior 800m champion William Chirchir, who competes in the 800m and 1500m. The men’s sprints are likely to be dominated by Sporting Clube Portugal’s Jamaican import Dwight Thomas, a 10.00 sprinter over 100m, and Cameroon’s Joseph Batangdon, who runs for French club CA Montreuil.
By Matthew Brown
The clubs competing in the 2006 European Champions Clubs Cup Group A are:
Men
Dukla Prague, Czech Republic
CA Montereuil, France
AC Panhellinios, Greece
GA Fiamme Gialle, Italy
Sporting Clube Portugal, Portugal
Club Luch, Moscow, Russia
AK Spartak Dubnica, Slovakia
Puma Chaplin Jerez, Spain
Women
USK Praha, Czech Republic
CA Montereuil, France
AC Panhellinios, Greece
Juventude Operaria Monte, Portugal
Club Luch, Moscow, Russia
Fondiaria Sai Atletica, Italy
Valencia CA Terra I Mar, Spain
Enka Spor Kulubu, Turkey
The 2006 European Champions Club Cup Group B will also take place on 27-28 May, in Istanbul, Turkey. The clubs competing are:
Men
Woodford Green AC, Great Britain & NI
Sparta AM, Denmark
Macabi Tel-Aviv, Israel
Amsterdamse AC, Netherlands
AC Crvena Zvezda, Serbia & Montenegro
Fenerbahce, Turkey
Women
Amsterdamse AC, Netherlands
Sparta AM, Denmark
USC Mainz, Germany
Abbey AC, Ireland
Maccabi Rishon-Lezion, Israel
AC Crvena Zvezda, Serbia & Montenegro
ST Bern, Switzerland
More information about the Group B match in Istanbul is available at www.fenerbahce2006.org