Translated material
Step by step
Russia wins medals in athletics
Over six days of competition, Russian athletes won five gold medals. Yesterday Olga Kaniskina celebrated her victory, being the strongest in the 20 km walk with a result of 1 hour 26 minutes. 31 sec. The silver medalist was javelin thrower Maria Abakumova, who set a personal record of 70.78 meters in her best attempt.Just bite your elbows out of resentment. Yesterday we were one step away from winning the Olympic gold medal in the women's javelin throw after 48 years. The last time Elvira Ozolina succeeded was at the 1960 Games in Rome.
Yesterday, Maria Abakumova, number three in the 2008 world rankings, the only Russian participant in the final javelin competition, declared her claim to gold on her first attempt, sending the projectile to 69 m 22 cm, which is almost 2 m 7 cm further than her personal best. , installed 19 days ago in Irkutsk. Almost immediately after this throw, the rain that had been incessant all day once again turned into downpour, and the Russian’s chances of retaining her leadership became even more real. Fortunately, Maria herself did not rely on nature’s mercy and in the fourth attempt improved her result, setting a new Russian record - 70.78. The leader of the season, Czech Barbara Shpotakova, who was in second place at that time, was 1 m 56 cm behind her.
We both screwed up the next attempt, we were rubbing our hands in anticipation of the “gold” that had literally fallen from the sky, when suddenly Shpotakova (where did the strength come from?) immediately dashed our hopes. The spear, launched by her in the last attempt, seemed to have acquired wings - it flew and did not want to land. And when it finally did this, the numbers 71.42 appeared on the scoreboard. Extremely upset, Abakumova no longer found the strength to gather herself for the last attempt.
A little earlier, our champion of Athens in the 800 m race, Yuri Borzakovsky, who had the second best result in the world this season - 1.42.79, was left out of the Olympics. It’s hard to say what happened to him in the semi-final race, but somehow these two laps around the stadium were somehow unusually difficult for him this time. As a result, with a result of 1:47.39, Yuri did not find a place among the eight finalists who will compete for Olympic awards on August 23. It’s a pity, we were counting on “gold” in this discipline.
And yet the tradition of winning a gold medal every day was not broken by Russian athletes yesterday. Olga Kaniskina, who can walk the 20 km distance faster than any woman in the world, climbed to the top step of the podium. The Saransk athlete won the first Olympic Games in her career without further ado. From the very first meters I picked up such a pace that the question of who would become the champion was immediately removed from the agenda. Olga's gap from her closest pursuers sometimes exceeded a minute. At the finish line, it shortened a little, but it wasn’t her rivals’ fault—it was just that Kaniskina, who was in complete control of the situation, allowed herself to relax a little.
Our other participant, Tatyana Kalmykova, had been vying for the bronze medal for a long time, but, unfortunately, seven kilometers before the finish she was disqualified for violating the walking rules.