Yusuf Kamel and Yuriy Borzakovskiy secure the automatic qualifying places in the second of the men's 800m semi-finals in Berlin (© Getty Images)
The 52nd edition of Brothers Znamenskiy Memorial on Saturday 26 June is part of the inaugural IAAF World Challenge series of meetings, a great honour for one of the oldest Russian athletic tournaments that has known its ups and downs over the years.
The town of Zhukovskiy will host the meeting for the fifth time and there are several reasons for that. First of all the brothers Georgiy and Serafim Znamenskiy, after whom the meeting was named and who before the WWII were excellent long distance runners, were born and raised in a village not far from the town. And memories of the heroic deeds of the two runners who broke dozens of the USSR national records are still well-known in the vicinity.
Secondly, there is a bunch of modern first class athletes headed by the 2004 Olympic 800m champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy who are living in Zhukovskiy, attracted to the area by the offer of free comfortable apartments from the local municipality which adores Athletics.
Thirdly, the Zhukovskiy’s “Meteor” Stadium is considered to be one of the best facilities in Russia which responds to all the modern requirements of athletics.
And finally, the stadium is usually packed with an enthusiastic local public that supports everybody to say nothing about the “chouchou” which is their nickname for Borzakovskiy. And even the unusually hot temperatures, currently over 33 degrees, won't prevent the fans of athletics from coming. The Brothers Znamenskiy Memorial is always sold out.
There are 17 major events on the programme -
Women: 200m, 800m, 1500m, 10,000m and 100m/h; Long Jump, Shot Put and Hammer Throw, which is part of the IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge series.
Men: 100m, 400m, 800m, (10,000m national only), 3000m Steeplechase, Long Jump, Triple Jump, High Jump and Javelin Throw.
The women's 10,000m and men's 10,000m races also act as the Russian National Championships for those events and will be the selection races for the Barcelona European Championships.
Borzakovskiy vs Kamel
The public’s attention on Saturday will be largely focused on the men’s and women’s 800m.
In the men’s two-laps, Borzakovskiy will be opposed by World 1500m champion Yusuf Saad Kamel of Bahrain, who was also the bronze medallist in Berlin over 800m.
Borzakovskiy is not in a hurry to get in form this year for all his efforts are targeted at the European Championships in Barcelona. He won last weekend at the European Team Championships in Bergen, Norway. The tactics he chose there were very unusual for a man who is known for his late finishes, as he led from the first metres of the race. He has been quoted as saying that he’s not bothered too much about the result in Zhukovskiy but in front of his local crowd he'll surely be inspired.
The first outdoor appearance of this season of Mariya Savinova, the World and European Indoor champion, will be of interest in the women’s 800m. Savinova, who has not run since her 1:58.26 in Doha on 14 March, which took her to the World Indoor title, is also focusing her season on the European championships and will use this opening race to evaluate her preparations.
The World record holder in the men's 3000m Steeplechase Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar will make his seasonal debut at his specialist event after running a 7:46.82 flat 3000m in Hengelo and a 13:00.31 5000m outing in Oslo, and is one of the top foreign stars of Saturday’s meeting.
Russian strength
The women’s 200m is an event which is always strong in Russia and 2003 World champion Anastasiya Kapachinskaya is one of those who is always striving for the best: “I'm trying to do my utmost this season. I feel well prepared for the tournament. Maybe the results will be good. The only trouble is the weather. I've never experienced a heat like that in Moscow.” The Olympic 4x100m Relay champion Yuliya Gushchina will oppose “Kapa” at the 200m distance with the intention to prove that she is the best Russian.
Lebedeva not giving up yet
The women's Long Jump is also quite an enjoyment for local lovers of athletics. The clash between 2004 Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva and the young rising star Darya Klishina is expected. Klishina leapt 6.87m at the Russian Winter indoor tournament in Moscow and outdoors this summer has improved to 6.94m. Also in the field is Olga Kucherenko, currently the world season leader with 7.13m. Reigning European champion Ludmila Kolchanova will also be in the competition trying to recapture the 7m plus form of previous seasons (2006/07/08 – PB 7.21m in 2007).
“This season is not the most important for me,” admitted Tatyana Lebedeva. “After the injury I had no time to do all the preparations required. So I decided to concentrate on Long Jump only, omitting this summer the triple jump.”
“I'm asked by you, how long I'm going to continue to jump? It depends upon many reasons. First of all it depends upon my health. Secondly, if I see that new talented athletes will succeed me and will be able to fight for medals then I'll pin my shoes up to the wall. But still I have the feeling that the time hasn't come yet. Though, I'm so busy now. I'm passing my exams at the Diplomatic Academy and besides I'm the deputy of the regional council of my native city of Volgograd. But it's not the time to say good bye to jumping.”
Quality long throws
A women’s event will be held as part of the season long IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge in the main arena of “Meteor”. Russia’s Tatyana Lysenko will take on Cuba’s Yipsi Moreno, who was the Beijing silver medallist and has two World titles to her name, along with Darya Pchelnik from Belarus and Marina Marghiev from Moldavia.
2003 World Javelin Throw champion Sergey Makarov has already had two competition over 80m this summer with a best of 83.59 to win the Russia Cup in Yerino on 11 June. The 37-year-old who has been beset with serious injuries in recent years takes on Beijing Olympic silver medallist Ainars Kovals from Latvia.
Silnov returns
In the High Jump, Olympic champion Andrey Silnov makes his comeback after missing nearly all of last season because of the serious injury. This year he is again in the sector and has already cleared 2.30m (28 May), and so it looks like that his intentions to win the gold medal at the European championships have a serious background.
Up against Silnov will be Czech Yaroslav Baba, and Russia’s Alexander Shoustov who was the winner last weekend at the European Team Championship in Bergen. It looks like reigning World champion Yaroslav Rybakov, whose season had so far been below par due to injury problems (best currently of 2.27), will also start.
A new talent has emerged recently in Russian men's long jumping. Young Pavel Shalin improved his personal best up to 8.25. In Bergen he took first prize with a windy 8.26m, and will be another name local fans on Saturday will be following closely.
Russia's Lyukman Adams is the 2007 European Junior Triple Jump gold medal winner and is 22-year-old. His father is Nigerian and he has a Russian mother who lives in St-Petersburg where Adams is a student of the Institute of the physical culture. So far this season he has jumped a personal best of 17.17m (12 June) and now he faces some of the top international names of the event like Yoandri Betanzos of Cuba and Dmitriy Valukevitch of the Slovak Republic.
Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia, the World bronze medallist at the Marathon last summer who was more recently a 2:22:28 third place finisher in London in April, will compete at 10,000m against Liliya Shobukhova who beat her to the latter title in the British capital by 28 seconds. And though Shobukhova and another Russian Inga Abitova, the reigning European 10,000m champion, have already got places at the 10,000m distance in the Russian team for this year’s continental championships, they are both set to start on Saturday.
And now finally back to the sprints. Steve Mullings from Jamaica and Mike Rogers from the United States will be the main attractions in the men’s 100m.
Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF
