European Athletics (EAA) – News – World indoor 4x800m record on home soil by Moscow team

The Russian indoor championships finished in fine fashion with a 4x800m world record by a Moscow quartet on Friday.

The team of Aleksandra Bulanova, Yekaterina Martynova, Yelena Kofanova and Anna Balakhsina ran 8:06.24 to completely eclipse the former record of 8:12.41 that had been set at the same championships 12 months by another Moscow team.

A world record was on the cards from the outset when Bulanova ran 2:01.8, compared to Tatyana Andrianova 2:05.8 from last year. Martynova followed it up with a leg of 2:03.1 (Oxsana Spasovkhodskaya ran 2:03.7 in 2010) to keep them well on course for a substantial improvement.

Kofanova, the only member of the Moscow quartet to be present in both teams, again ran the third leg and this time clocked 2:00.4 compared to her 2:02.9 last year.

Balakhsina took the baton for the anchor leg and didn’t relax as she competed her task in 2:00.6 for her stint over four laps of the Vladimir Kuts Hall.

Martynova’s relatively slow second leg, at least compared to her team mates, can be attributed to the fact that she had earlier on Friday won a dramatic 1500m in 4:07.67, coming home ahead of Yelena Arzhakova, who was second in 4:08.81 after also finishing third in the 800m on Thursday.

Yelena Korobkina finished third in 4:09.55 but the 2011 world leader Yevgeniya Zolotova crashed to the track halfway around the final lap because of a foot problem.

European leading times were achieved in both the men’s and women’s 5000m races, a distance that is not contested at the European Athletics Indoor Championships but which is becoming increasingly popular at indoor meetings.

Andrey Safronov clocked 13:49.07 while Natalya Popkova won the women’s race in 15:39.25, which saw a tie for second with Natalya Gorchakova and Natalya Puchkova both given 15:39.40.

“After missing out on the medals when finishing fourth in the 3000m on Wednesday, I wasn’t going to be beaten in this race,” said Popkova, the 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships 5000m and 10000m gold medallist.

The 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships triple jump silver medallist Olesya Zabara (formerly Bufalova) had only her second competition for more than two years after returned after giving birth to a son in the summer of 2009 but won with14.38m.

“I’ve only been training properly for six months and I took a long time coming back after giving birth. I had a competition in January in Krasnador (where she lives) and jumped 14.09m but I had a sore hamstring. I’ve had good medical treatment but I have been thinking only about these championships not the European Indoors so far,” said Zabara.

The 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships will be held in the French capital Paris at the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy from 4-6 March.

Some distance behind Zabara, there were another four women over 14 metres.

Natalya Kutyakova finished second with 14.13m while Alsu Murtazina, Yekaterina Koneva and Yekaterina Kayukova filled the next three places with 14.09m, 14.05m and 14.02m respectively..

Dmitriy Starodubtsev was the only man to go over 5.60m in the pole vault with former world and European indoor champion Igor Pavlov second with a modest 5.45m.

“I was hoping for some competition. I can’t jump higher unless I’m pushed,” said Starodubtsev, the 2005 European Athletics Junior Championships gold medallist.

Starodubtsev is going to Paris in two weeks time hoping to finally get among the medals at a senior continental championship.

He was sixth at the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships but failed to make the final in Torino two years ago. He made the final at the European Athletics Championships outdoors last summer only to then fail to clear a height.

There was a surprise in the men’s long jump when Sergey Polyanskiy triumphed with 7.92m and beat 2011 world leader Aleksandr Menkov, who has jumped 8.17m this year but could only reach 7.88m on this occasion.

Vyacheslav Sokolov took the men’s 1500m in 3:41.56, just in front of steeplechaser  Andrey Farnosov, who was second in 3:41.83.

European Athletics (EAA) – News