Anna OMAROVA

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Updated 25 February 2008

OMAROVA Anna, Russia (Shot Put)

Born: 3 October 1981, Pyatigorsk

Height: 1.80m/Weight 103kg

Lives: Zhykovskiy (Moscow region)

Coach: Aleksandr Kroshmalev

Born of parents who were keen on sport, Anna Omarova’s father was an amateur boxer and her mother an amateur volleyball player. As for Anna, she began playing basketball at the age of seven. Then her family moved to the town of Essentuki, where she took part in school athletics competitions, and where she was noticed by trainers from Stavropol Territory, in which Essentuki lies.

For about a year the trainers tried to persuade Anna’s parents that their daughter might have a serious future in sport. They were persuaded and, at the age of 14, she found herself in Stavropol, the main city in Stavropol Territory, where she became a pupil of the famous sporting school. Successful at the school, she graduated as a trainer and now she is studying economics in Agrarian University of Stavropol. 

Invited to become a member of the Russian team early in 1999, the then Anna Tolokina went on to perform in the 2000 World Junior Championships in Santiago, Chile, finishing 5th. But soon she married and gave birth to a daughter, Aminat, in 2002. Omarova recalls: “I managed to recuperate my speed and power conditions rather fast after childbirth, but it was hard to recover technique for a pretty long time”.

Then came a breakthrough in her results in 2007 thanks to her technical improvement. She impoved her personal best of 18.40m, which she had set in 2006, by 1.29m for victory at the European Cup, in Munich. Her next start was at the Russian Championships and again she proved her strength, gaining the gold medal (19.34m).

Everybody expected that she might win a medal at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka but she managed only 18.20m for 9th place. She remembered: “I ate some strange meat dish with pork in it and my stomach couldn’t bear pork. So I was poisoned and felt very weak”.

And at the beginning of February 2008 Omarova won the Russian Indoor Championships (19.09m). She is looking to compete as often as possible to get wider experience.

Personal Bests

Shot: 19.69 (2007)
Discus: 51.62 (2007)
Indoors
Shot: 19.09 (2008)

Yearly Progression

1997 - 12.98; 1998 - 15.88i/14.18; 1999 - 13.45i/13.45; 2000 - 16.12; 2001 - 17.13; 2003 - 17.28; 2004 - 17.12; 2005 - 17.04i/16.70; 2006 - 18.40; 2007 - 19.69; 2008 - 19.09i.

Career Highlights

1998        1         Russian Indoor U18 Championships     13.58
1998        1         Russian U18 Championships                   14.05
1998        4         Russian U20 Championships                 14.18
1999        6         Russian Indoor U20 Championships         13.45
1999        5         Russian U20 Championships                    13.37
2000        2         Russian Indoor U20 Championships         14.19
2000        1         Russian U20 Championships                  15.52
2000        5         World Junior Championships                    15.42
2001        1         Russian U23 Championships                    17.00
2001        5         European U23 Championships                16.32
2003 1 Russian U23 Championships 16.37
2004 5 Russian Championships 16.92
2005 5 Russian Indoor Championships 16.45
 5 Russian Championships 16.52
2006 4 Russian Indoor Championships 18.05
 5 Russian Championships 17.86
2007 2 Russian Indoor Championships 18.81
 6 European Indoor Championships 17.98
 1 European Cup 19.69
 1 Russian Championships 19.34
 9 World Championships 18.20
2008 1 Russian Indoor Championships 19.09

Prepared by Larisa Voloshina, Sergey Tikhonov & Marina Voloshina for the ‘Focus on Athletes’ project. Copyright IAAF 2008