Impact ending

Our athletes exceeded the medal plan

At the World Athletics Championships that ended in Helsinki, the Russian team exceeded the medal plan announced by the team's head coach Valery Kulichenko before leaving for Finland - 4 awards of each value. Even before yesterday's starts, the Russians had 5 gold, silver and bronze medals, which guaranteed second place in the overall standings, after the USA. In the evening program, the winner and medalists in the men's 800 m race were the first to be determined. Olympic champion Yuri Borzakovsky began his famous finishing spurt too late, never catching the Moroccan Rachid Ramzi, who competes under the flag of Brunei. Yuri again, like two years ago in Paris, was content with the “silver” of the World Championship.

The seventh day of the championship, Friday, turned out to be the most successful for the Russian team. Our team gained five awards at once - three gold, silver and bronze. At 11.35 local time, the walkers set off for a distance of 50 km. After the legendary Pole Robert Korzeniewski left the sport, there is no clear leader in this discipline. Many walkers have equal chances of winning in the largest international competitions; now it is possible for those who are considered to be “dark horses” to “shoot”, as they say. This is what the representative of the Mordovian walking school, 25-year-old Sergei Kirdyapkin, turned out to be before the weekend. He immediately went ahead, and the judges did not have the slightest reason to find fault with the Russian’s walking technique. Although the referees that day were very strict - in the end they disqualified 14 athletes because at some moments both of their legs were in an unsupported position, not in contact with the surface of the track. Seven more athletes were physically unable to reach the finish line, leaving the race due to loss of strength.

Behind Kirdyapkin in second position was the more experienced Igor Voevodin, despite the fact that he started with a minor injury. The attempts of the Chinese walkers to catch up with the Russians were unsuccessful, and our athletes made a kind of double. Having finished, Kirdyapkin waited for Voevodin for more than three minutes, after which they wrapped themselves in the national flag and made a lap of honor along the stadium path. In terms of time, the winner showed the highest personal achievement, and bronze medalist Alex Schwatzer set a new Italian record.

The highlight of the evening program was the women's pole vault. Competitions in this discipline were postponed from Wednesday due to bad weather. The organizers had two reasons to postpone the final start - firstly, for safety reasons (strong wind and rain could lead to dire consequences), and secondly, because in normal weather our Elena Isinbayeva had a much better chance set a new world record. Volgograd accomplished its mission perfectly. Starting from a height of 4 m 50 cm, Elena took the next two milestones on her first attempt - 4.60 and 4.70, which was quite enough to win the gold medal. Already in the rank of champion, Isinbayeva asked the judges to raise the bar one centimeter higher than the world record and the second time she overcame 501 cm. “Winning the world championship was not a dream, it was just a goal,” Isinbayeva said. - After all, my collection clearly lacked the “gold” of the summer world championships. I think this season I will try to set another record and take 5 m 2 cm. It remains to add that Elena won 41 cm from the silver medalist of Poland’s Monika Pyrek. This is quite a hit. Former world record holder Stacey Dragila, it seems, Isinbayeva is no longer a competitor - the American managed to finish her performances in qualifying.

Before the Athens Olympics, hammer thrower Olga Kuzenkova had a reputation as always second - at the previous three world championships and at the Summer Games in Sydney, she invariably received silver. In Greece, Olga finally did what had been expected of her for many years - she became the first, breaking a certain psychological barrier. In Helsinki, it was finally Olga’s turn to be not a World Championship medalist, but its real triumphant. Although at first everything did not work out well for Kuzenkova. In the first attempt, she made a spade, in the next three throws the hammer stubbornly refused to fly away at least beyond the 71 m mark. The Russian woman was openly angry, and the fifth entry into the sector turned out to be a sight for sore eyes - 74 m 3 cm - better than all other competitors at that time . The Frenchwoman Manuela Montenbrune, who had lost her lead, was very upset by the Russian’s result and, in such an upset state, did not even hold on to the prize position. Kuzenkova, in her final attempt, threw the projectile even further at 75 m 10 cm, Cuban Yipsey Moreno and our Olga Lysenko, who eventually received bronze, no longer found any arguments in the fight for the right to take the highest step of the podium.

On Saturday, the world record holder in the 400 m hurdles, Yulia Pechenkina, was pleased. With a season's best score of 52.90, she confidently left behind Americans Lashinda Demus and Sandra Glover. “I’m pleased with how I ran technically,” Pechenkina commented on her victory. - And the path by lot was convenient - the fourth. Being in the middle, it’s very convenient to control the situation in the race, you can see how all the other participants are doing.” In the shot put, we considered Olympic bronze medalist Svetlana Kriveleva to be the Russian favorite, but Olga Ryabinkina, who is seven years younger than her experienced teammate, pushed the projectile further - 19 m 64 cm versus 19 m 16 cm. Ryabinkina won silver, only by 2 cm ahead of third place representative of New Zealand Valerie Wiley. Nadezhda Ostapchuk from Belarus confidently achieved the title of world champion with a score of 20.51, but Kriveleva was content with fourth place in the protocol.

Results. MEN. 200 m. 1. Gatlin (USA) - 20.04. 400 m. 1. Wariner (USA) - 43.93. 800 m . 1. Ramzi (Brunei) - 1.44.24. 2. Borzakovsky (Russia) - 1.44.51. 4x100 m. 1. France - 38.08. 110 m s/b. 1. Docourt (France) - 13.07. Length. 1. Phillips (USA) - 8.60. Triple. 1. Davis (USA) - 17.57. Walking 50 km. 1. Kirdyapkin - 3:38.08. 2. Voevodin (both - Russia) - 3:41.25. WOMEN. 200 m. 1. Felix (USA) - 22.16. 4x100 m. 1. USA - 41.78. 100 m s/b. 1. Perry (USA) - 12.66. 400 m s/b. 1. Pechenkina (Russia) - 52.90. 5000 m. 1. T. Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 14.38.59. Marathon. 1. Radcliffe (Great Britain) - 2:20.57. Disk. 1. Dietz (Germany) - 66.56. 2. Sadova (Russia) - 64.33. Hammer . 1. Kuzenkova (Russia) - 75.10... 3. Lysenko (Russia) - 72.46. Core. 1. Ostapchuk (Belarus) - 20.51. 2. Ryabinkina (Russia) - 19.64. Pole. 1. Isinbaeva (Russia) - 5.01.

Vladimir ILYIN