Translated material
Silver vein
Russia collected the biggest harvest of medals in Birmingham
Only fifth place was taken by the Russian national team, which actually acted as an experimental squad, at the 29th European Indoor Championships, which took place in Birmingham (Great Britain). But this is if we talk about the medal standings, and first of all we count “gold”. In terms of the total number of awards (15) and points standings, our team became the best at the continental championship.Svetlana Feofanova (pole) and Oksana Zbrozhek (800 m) climbed to the highest step of the podium. “Silver” was won by Evgenia Polyakova (60 m), Natalya Panteleeva (1500 m), Alexandra Antonova (60 m s/b), Yulia Golubchikova (six), Olesya Bufalova (triple), Irina Khudoroshkina (core), Alexander Pogorelov (heptathlon) ), Vladislav Frolov, Ivan Buzolin, Artem Sergeenkov, Maxim Dyldin, Natalya Antyukh, Olesya Zykina, Zhanna Kashcheeva, Natalya Ivanova (all 4x400 m relay). “Bronze” went to Olesya Zykina (400 m), Olesya Chumakova (1500 m), Alexander Sergeev (triple) and Olga Ryabinkina (core). The result was: two gold, nine silver and four bronze awards, which in terms of the total number of medals corresponds to the plan of the head coach of the Russian national team Valery Kulichenko - four, four and seven.
The best result in terms of victories is the hosts of the competition. Team Great Britain earned four gold medals. Italy, Sweden and Poland have three each. The official points system looks the same as in the traditional European Cups - eight points for first place, seven for second and so on. Here Russia has 140 points, 20 less than Great Britain, Spain earned 78 points.
A well-organized championship almost ended in scandal. In the men's 4x400 m relay, the Russians took the lead from the second stage, and in the last stage Artem Sergeenkov was pushed aside by the German runner Bastiam Swillims, who took the lead. The protest of the Russian team was satisfied only in the sense that the German four were disqualified - their result was not counted. The home team that finished second automatically received “gold”, the Russians received “silver”. By the way, the 4x400 m relay race was included in the program of the European winter championships from 1970 to 1975, and then this discipline disappeared from the schedule for a quarter of a century.
Competitions in the jumping sectors turned out to be especially interesting in Foggy Albion. The absence of world pole vault record holder Elena Isinbayeva was more than compensated for by the stubborn struggle between Svetlana Feofanova and young Yulia Golubchikova. The latter cleared the bar at 471 cm and was ahead of Feofanova, whose two jumps at this height were unsuccessful. At that time, Svetlana spent a total of more attempts, she had to reschedule the third jump to a height of 476 cm, and she coped with her task brilliantly. Golubchikova was unable to add 5 cm to her existing result, but even without this she set a personal record. Bronze medalist of the Athens Olympics, Pole Anna Rogowska remained third - 466 cm.
In the women's high jump, the former all-around Belgian Tia Elleboth, who excelled in this discipline at the summer European Championships in Sweden, won an unconditional victory with a huge advantage. The 29-year-old athlete with a higher education in chemistry set a new continental record - 205 cm. Her closest pursuer was 9 cm behind her. Our Anna Chicherova performed unsuccessfully - sharing sixth place with a modest result of 192 cm.
For men, Russian record holder Ivan Ukhov was unable to take part in the tournament. On the opening day of the championship it was officially announced that he had a foot injury. Without our athlete, the Swedes dominated - Olympic champion Stefan Holm took the bar at a height of 234 cm, silver from his compatriot Linus Thornblad. Our Andrey Tereshin is only seventh (220 cm).
In the heptathlon, Alexander Pogorelov was in the lead until the last event of the program, ahead of Athens triumphant Roman Sebrle. However, the Russian performed worse than ever in the 1000 m race - he lost to the Czech by 10 seconds, which in conversion amounted to 101 points. As a result, our athlete scored 6127 points, and the representative of the Czech Republic scored 6196. Our men's team never won a single gold medal.
The hero of the tournament should probably be Briton Jason Gardener. He won the 60 m hurdles final for the fourth time in a row.