Russian Athletics

On February 7th Moscow will witness the international meeting “Russian Winter” for the 19th time. The superstar of the world athletics Elena Isinbayeva has never taken part in this competition and she promised to gladden the eyes and the hearts of the spectators with the record jump. All those who’ll come on Sunday to the indoor track will see reigning world champions Lolo Jones (60mH) and Olusoji Fasuba (60m). The season leader in High Jump Ivan Ukhov will compete with the Olympic Champion Andrey Silnov for whom it’ll be the first start after the operation. And the duel between Borzakovskiy and Bungei will be for sure one of the top moments of the competition.

Men

60m

The reigning world indoor champion Olusoji Fasuba of Nigeria has participated in the “Russian Winter” meeting before. In 2008 he was the winner of the event. This year to become the winner he’ll have to be the fastest in the company of Mark Jelks, 60m USA champion in 2009, the best runner in Poland  Dariusz Kuc, 4x100m world championships medallist Nagel Morne and the best Russian sprinters: Roman Smirnov, Ramis Abdulkaderov, Andrey Yepishin, Mikhail Idrisov. 60m event “owns” the oldest record of the ‘Russian Winter”. It was set at the first meeting in 1992 when Vitaliy Savin of Kazakhstan ran 60m in 6.53. According to the regulations of the meeting men’s and women’s 60m will be in 2 rounds.

400m

After the bronze triumph of the Russian relay team at Beijing Olympics everyone is eager to see successful starts of Russians in 400m. The best PB has the former USA champion Greg Nixon 46.19. Getting ready for the start in this event are Alexander Derevyagin and Vladimir Antmanis of Russia and Rabah Yusif of Sudan.

600m

600m is going to be really a fantastic event! Two Olympic Champions - Yuriy Borzakovskiy (Athens – 2004) and Wilfred Bungei (Beijing – 2008)! The famous Kenyan, an old friend and the main competitor of Yuriy Borzakovskiy is coming to Moscow again to try to win and to break the existing world best of 1:15.12. But it is hardly possible to name the winner at this distance as two Olympic champions will have to face with 800m silver medallist of Beijing Olympics Ismail Ahmed Ismail of Sudan, Ali Belal Mansoor of Bahrain, Latvian Dmitrijs Milkevics, 4x400m bronze medallist of Beijing Olympics Maksim Dyldin and the European indoor champion – 2005 Dmitriy Bogdanov.  The 5 times winner of the ‘Russian Winter” Yuriy Borzakovskiy is a real national athlete in Russia. Last year at 1000m he finished second after the famous Kenyan runner Haron Keitany but at the same time he set the new National record. This year 600m distance is a new challenge for Yuriy as the National record at this distance is very old – Victor Kalinkin 1:16.83 in 1989.

3000m

This event is not on the list of favourites for the Russians. It is well-known that the best long distance runners are Kenyans and Ethiopians. This fact makes Jonas Cheruyiot of Kenya the favourite of this event but he’ll have a company of a strong runner from RSA Juan Van Deventer and the best Russian runners Sergey Ivanov, Vyacheslav Shabunin and Andrey Farnosov.

High jump

This event is token for the “Russian Winter” winners. In 2008 Andrey Silnov won HJ at the “Russian Winter” and the same year he became an Olympic Champion in Beijing; last year the winner was Ivan Ukhov who, a bit later, became the European indoor Champion in Turin. These two great jumpers will face the World Champion – 2003 Jacques Freitag of RSA, an American Tora Harris who has set his PB at the ‘Russian Winter” in the previous years and Russian jumpers Andrey Tereshin and Aleksander Shustov.

Long Jump

Russian young jumpers – European junior champion Aleksander Menkov and European U23 championships silver medallist Pavel Karavayev – will be “examined” by famous jumpers from different countries. The favourites and the superstars of this year are two Americans: World champion in triple jump Walter Davis and world indoor medal winner Miguel Pate. Davis’s specialty is triple jump but his PB in LJ is 8.36. For Pate the aim is to get to the national team for Doha, so, he’ll try to jump as far as possible, and his PB is really good 8.59. The European indoor in Turin bronze medal winner Marcin Starzak of Poland is known in Russia as he took part in the “Russian Winter” meeting before, and he also has results over 8 metres.

60m Hurdles

Bronze medallist of Valencia world indoor and National record holder Yevgeniy Borisov is getting ready for the World indoor Championships in Doha. Young and ambitious sprinter wants to prove that medal of Valencia was not just a fortuity. Yevgeniy won the “Russian Winter” meeting twice in 2007 and 2009 and this year the competition will be the first step on the way to the World indoor in Doha. Borisov will face the European champion Stanislav Olijar of Latvia.

Women

60m

Moscow will see the competition between many great runners: reigning World champion  American Angela Williams, 4x100m Olympic champion and European champion – 2009 Yevgeniya Polyakova, Joice Maduaka of UK, “Russian Winter” winner of 2008 Svetlana Nabokina, Mariya Bolikova and Yuliya Katsura. There will two rounds in 60m.

200m

This distance is not on the list of international events this year as only Russians will compete but everyone hopes to see the new competition record as the existing record was set in 1995 by Natalya Voronova (22.93). Best Russian sprinters will start and among them Natalya Ivanova and Yelena Bolsun.

400m

All the best Russian 400m runners are going to take part. Last year the distance in the program was a bit shorter – 300m – and for the winner Antonina Krivoshapka the year 2009 was full of triumph events: in March 400m and 4x400m European indoor champion, in July at the national championships new PB 49.29 that is also a new national U23 record, in August 400m and 4x400m bronze medals winner at the World championships in Berlin. For 4x100m Olympic champion Yuliya Gushchina the season 2009 was not successful at all and she is eager to win. They’ll have to compete with 4x400m world champion - 2009 and 400m world championships finalist Debbie Dunn of USA, 4x400m gold medal winner of Turin European indoor Darya Safonova, very experienced medal winner of Olympic games and World Championships Tatyana Firova and Kseniya Vdovina.

800m

And again the list of athletes is fantastic: silver medallist of Beijing Olympics and Berlin world championships Kenyan Janeth Jepkosgei, Berlin world championships bronze medal winner Jenny Meadows of UK, European indoor champion Mariya Savinova, silver medallist of Valencia World championships and Birmingham European championships Tetyana Petlyuk of Ukraine and Helsinki World championships bronze medallist Tatyana Andrianova.

Pole Vault

This is undoubtedly the highlight and the main attraction of this year! For the first time in the history of “Russian Winter” all the spectators will see the two times Olympic Champion and 27 times World record holder Elena Isinbayeva. This is her first start at the indoor season 2010 that will be continued in Doha at the World championships. All the participants are very famous, together with Isinbayeva there will be Svetlana Feofanova, medal winner of the Olympic Games, World champion – 2003; Yuliya Golubchikova, European indoor champion -2009; Monika Pyrek, Berlin silver medallist; Aleksandra Kiryashova and Elizaveta Ryzih of Germany. In such a competition the spectators can be lucky to witness the World record!

Long Jump

Season best of the last year’s winner of “Russian Winter” Olga Kucherenko is 6.71, and this year at the meeting she will face European junior champion Darya Klishina, Serbian Ivana Spanovich, two American jumpers Brianna Glenn and Funmi Jimoh and Viktoria Rybalko of Ukraine.

60m Hurdles

One of the oldest meeting records is 7.92 and it was set by Eva Sokolova in 1993 but this year it is highly possible that the record will be broken as the World champion American Lolo Jones is going to start on Sunday and her SB is 7.85. The list of hurdlers that are going to start in the same event includes American sprinters Yvette Lewis and Kellie Wells, Russians Aleksandra Antonova, Yekaterina Shtepa, Tatyana Dektyaryova and the national leader of this season Olga Samylova.