The European Athletics Championship starts in Gotherg.

On Monday, the European Athletics Championship will start in the Swedish Gothenoe.

In an interview with RIA Novosti, the head coach of the Russian athletics national team Valery Kulichenko said that the athletes was given the task of taking the first team place.

“Our plan is to win six gold, silver and bronze medals, that is, a total of 18 awards and take the first team place,” Kulichenko said. “I was given such a task. If we won 20 medals at the World Cup, then why not get 18”.

The Russian team, which included 120 people - 57 men and 63 women, began to travel to Gotheborg from August 4.

Already today it is safe to say that a number of athletes of the team will claim the highest awards. The Olympic champion and world jumping champion Elena Isinbaeva, despite the second place after the Pole Monica Puzurek in recent competitions in Stockholm, remains the leader of the season and the main favorite of the championship of the continent.

European champions who won this title four years ago in Munich, Svetlana Feofanova (jumping with pole) and Yaroslav Rybakov (height jumping) are again one of the main contenders for medals.

The world record holder Tatyana Lysenko and ex-record lodger Gulfiya Hanafeev will continue their dispute over record distances in throwing a hammer. Olympic champions Tatyana Lebedeva (triple jump) and Elena Slesarenko (high jumps) will compete for victories in their crowned species.

Olympic champion in 800 meters, Yuri Borzakovsky, will not go to the European Championship, who so far refuses to take part in large competitions.

At the previous European Championship, which took place in Munich in August 2002, the Russian team took the first team place with 225 points, having won a total of 26 awards - 7 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze.