The Russian Olympic Selection
Nikolay Ivanov for IAAF
26 July 2000 - Moscow - The head of All Russia federation Valentin Balakhnitchev predicted that the selection of the national Olympic team at the Russian championships ( july 22-26) would be very hard task with a fierce battle for the places in the team. He was right.
During all the days of the championships in Tula coaches were trying by all means to push their athletes towards Sydney. The athletes needed to win one of two first places in each event and fulfil qualification standards to take a place in the team.
First of all there were rather tough standards of the national federation and in case the athletes could not reach them they were asked to show international standards.
Although sporadic heavy rains throughout the championships did nothing to help produce good results, outstanding results were achieved in heptathlon. Yelena Prohorova showed 6765 points, Natalya Roschupkina – 6633 and Diana Koritskay –6401.
Prohorova needed only 6 weeks to add to improve her personal best result by 245 points. She says that she can still improve her throwing and 100 metres hurdles to fight for the Olympic gold medal.
Yuriy Borzakovsiy ran 400 m with a new Russian junior record of 45.84 and was timed during that running with new personal best results at 200 and 300 m. He wants to improve his acceleration for the 800 m in Sydney. His next start will be in Stockholm (August 1) at 1000 m. And then he will be training in Kislovodsk without any competitions.
The new Russian junior record was established by Yelena Isinbayeva in the pole vault. She cleared 4.40 metres together with the winner Yelena Poliakova in hard rainy conditions.
Tatiana Lebedeva showed in triple jump 14.82 against a strong wind in all her jumps. She says that now she is ready to reach results over 15 m.
It is clear that Viacheslav Voronin will be joined in Sydney by his training partner Sergei Kliugin who jumped 2,33.
A new Russian hope in pole vault the winner of the world junior championships Pavel Gerasimov overcome 5.85 in a second jump to take a rather easy victory.
Natalya Tsyganova ran 800 m with a world season and personal best of 1:56.60. Second place went to Olga Raspopova with 1:56.85. Now Natalya says that it is a good base for the Olympic battle and she is going to make further progress at the competitions in Stockholm and Zurich.
Meanwhile Irina Privalova got a 12th victory at the national championships but that time in 400 m/h with 54.21. She says that she can manage to reach 53 seconds to contest for an Olympic medal.
The coaches named the athletes selected in the Olympic team, though there may still be some corrections in the near future because some discussions on the team are still in process.
Men: 100 m Sergey Bychkov 400 m Dmitriy Golovastov. 800 m Yuriy Borzakovskiy, Dmitriy Bogdanov, Artem Mastrov. 1500 m Viacheslav Shabunin. 10 000 m Dmitriy Maksimov. 110 m/h Yevgeniy Pechenkin, Andrey Kislyh. 400 m/h Vladislav Shiriayev, Boris Gorban, Ruslan Maschenko. 3000 m steeple Vladimir Pronin. 4x100 m Sergey Bychkov, Dmitriy Vasilyev, Valeriy Kirdiashev, Sergey Slukin, Aleksandr Smirnov. 4x400 m Dmitriy Golovastov, Andrey Semenov, Oleg Kovalev, Dmitriy Tents, Yuriy Borzakovskiy. Marathon Dmitriy Kapitonov, Leonid Shvetsov. 20 km walk Ilya Markov, Roman Rasskazov, Vladimir Andreyev. 50 km walk Valeriy Spytsin, Vladimir Potemin. High jump Viacheslav Voronin, Sergey Klugin, Petr Brayko. Pole vault Maksim Tarasov, Pavel Gerasimov, Yevgeniy Smiriagin. Long jump Daniil Burkenya, Vladimir Maliavin, Vitaliy Shkurlatov or Kiril Sosunov. Triple jump Denis Kapustin, Gennadiy Markov, Igor Spasovhodskiy. Shot put Pavel Chumachenko. Discus throw Dmitriy Shevchenko, Vitaliy Sydorov, Aleksandr Borichevskiy Hammer throw Vasiliy Sidorenko, Aleksey Zagorniy, Iliya Konovalov Javelin throw Sergey Makarov, Vladimir Ovchinnikov. Decathlon Roman Razbeyko.
Women: 100 m Natalya Ignatova, Marina Trandenkova, Natalya Voronova. 200 m Svetlana Pospelova, Marina Trandenkova, Irina Khabarova. 400 m Natalya Nasarova, Olga Kotlyarova, Oliesya Zykina. 800 m Natalya Tsiganova, Olga Raspopova, Irina Mistyukevitch 1500 m Svetlana Masterkova, Liudmila Rogacheva, Natalya Gorelova . 5000 m Tatyana Tomashova, Olga Yegorova, Galina Bogomolova 10 000 m Galina Bogomolova, Lidia Grigorieva, Liudmila Bektasheva.100 m/h Natalya Shehodanova,Yulia Graudin, Svetlana Lauhova. 400 m/h Irina Privalova, Yulya Nosova, Natalya Chulkova 4x100 m Natalya Ignatova, Marina Trandenkova, Natalya Voronova, Marina Kislyh, Natalya Voronova. 4x400 m Natalya Nasarova, Olga Kotlyarova, Oliesya Zykina, Svetlana Goncharenko , Yulia Sotnikova. Marathon Valentina Yegorova, Liubov Morgunova. 20 km walk Tatyana Gudkova, Olga Polyakova, Irina Stankina. High Jump Yelena Yelesina, Marina Kuptsova, Svetlana Lapina. Pole vault Yelena Belyakova, Yelena Isinbayeva, Svetlana Feofanova. Long jump Tatyana Kotova, Lyudmila Galkina, Olga Rubleva. Triple jump Tatiana Lebedeva, Oksana Rogova, Inna Lasovskaya. Shot put Larisa Peleshenko, Svetlana Kriveleva, Olga Riabinkina. Discus throw Natalya, Sadova Larisa Korotkevich, Oksana Yesipchuk. Hammer throw Olga Kuzenkova, Tatiana Konstantinova, Alla Davydova. Javelin throw Tatiana Shikolenko, Yekaterina Ivakina. Heptathlon Yelena Prohorova, Natalya Raschupkina, Diana Koritskaya.
