News08 Jul 2004


Znamenskiy Memorial (Day One) - World leads in Women's Discus and Shot

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Svetlana Krivelyova wins the shot put final (© Getty Images)

The two Znamenskiy brothers were the best Soviet runners of the pre-war epoch. They broke USSR records numerous times and remained in the memories of all track fans, as great competitors and as friendly and decent people. Therefore it was only natural that on the 6 July 1956 the First Brothers Znamenskiy Memorial was launched.

Like all sporting events with a long history the Memorial has known good and bad times, it’s ups and downs. But in spite of many difficulties as it transferred successfully from the Soviet into the modern era. The Brothers Znamenskiy Memorial has survived.

Today (Thursday 8 July) in the city of Kazan, which is the capital of Tatarstan, the competition programme of the two day meeting began, with its main international section tomorrow Friday 9 July encompassing the IAAF Grand Prix II meeting. 

Competitors from 23 countries are participating this year which is a great boost for a meeting which saw only 12 nations taking past last year. The main foreign star will be Poland’s Olympic Hammer champion Szymon Ziolkowski.

On the first day or rather evening it was mostly Russian athletes competing in disciplines which are not part of the official schedule of the Grand Prix.

Sadova supreme with 68.63m

The very first event brought great joy to the local public, as 2001 World champion Natalya Sadova threw 68.63m in the women’s Discus for a world season’s lead. Sshe backed up her win with a series of other 65m plus attempts. Olga (Burova) Cherniavskaya, the 1993 World champion, finished second with 65.09.

20.65m women's Shot

Normally, the women's Shot Put is not the centre of attention but today was very different as in the sector there was 1992 Olympic champion Svetlana Krivelyova who also won last year’s World title and this year's World Indoor crown. Competing against her was Irina Korzhanenko the reigning European champion.

Between them they surpassed the much cherished 20 metres line six times.  At first Kriveliova was leading with 20.03. Then on the 5th attempt Korzhanenko took the initiative with 20.65. Kriveliova bettered her best result with 20.49. The winning result is a world season lead.

In the men’s Long Jump Vitaliy Shkurlatov won as expected with 8.06. He made only three attempts. He explained that he didn’t use the final three jumps because he was exhausted  after the long string of international competitions. His best this season is 8.21. While being interviewed he confirmed that he thought he could jump 8.30 and would take a medal in Athens. Kirill Sosunov was the 2nd – 7.99.

Simagina wins long Jump with 7.07

In the absence of Tatiana Lebedeva it was the 21 year old Irina Simagina won the women’s long jump – 7.07 – the second best in the world this year. Anastasiya Ilyina, who is also only 21 took second place with 6.45. Both are coached by Oleg Kapazhsinskiy in the provincial town of Ryazan.

Vyacheslav Voronin the 1999 World champion won the men’s High Jump with 2.28.

Tabakova is ill

The experienced sprinter Larisa Kruglova was the fastest in the women’s 100m – 11.31. But the fastest Russian of the summer Yuliya Tabakova who had clocked 11.21 in the preliminary heats failed to run in the final due to a sudden illness.

Ekaterina Lezsheva, the former Russian champion in the sprint, made her comeback. She gave birth to a baby one year ago and is now is competing under the name of Grigorieva. In her first important tournament here in Kazan she was third – 11.37.

Irina Khabarova’s result in the women’s 200m was 22,96. Other results – women’s 400m Hurdles Ekaterina Bakhvalova – 55.29. The World record holder Yuliya Pechonkina didn’t run. The men’s 400m Hurdles was won by Mikhail Lipskiy in 49.36, and the 110m Hurdles by  Igor Peremota in 13.62, while the flat 400m went to Anton Galkin in 45.61.

Nickolai Dolgopolov and Rostislav Orlov for the IAAF  

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