Kuchina continues winning streak at Russian Indoors
19.02.2014
Mariya Kuchina, the current world leader in the women’s high jump, was dominant on the final day of the Russian Indoor Championships, held at the CSKA Indoor Arena in Moscow on February 17-19.
The 21-year-old world junior bronze medallist has already jumped 2.01m and 2.00m this season, but on Wednesday she just needed to clear 1.94m to get the gold. Irina Gordeyeva and Oksana Krasnokutskaya jumped 1.90m with Gordeyeva being given second place on count-back.
Kuchina – who is undefeated this season with four wins – then attempted a would-be personal best of 2.02m, but didn’t succeed.
“The competition wasn’t perfect. I cleared too many heights at the second try, so I’ll have to figure out the reasons with my coach,” said Kuchina. “It was good to try to set a personal best, but it’s too hard to do it in the morning. As for my approach, it will remain short. These eight steps contain all my power.”
Elsewhere in the field events, Pavel Shalin went over eight metres in the long jump for the third time this season, leaping 8.08m for the win, but he still lacks the 8.16m entry standard for the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot 2014.
In the pole vault, 22-year-old Ilya Mudrov improved his indoor personal best by 20cm to win with a 5.60m clearance.
Olympian Veronika Mosina was the only athlete in the women’s triple jump to surpass 14 metres. The 23-year-old jumped 14.06m on her final attempt to win her first national title.
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