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european event<br />
Tatyana<br />
Lebedeva<br />
cal superiority to their rivals.<br />
In the 200 metres, last year’s<br />
winner, Yuliya Gushchina was<br />
determined to repeat her success.<br />
She ran the distance in<br />
22.87 which was not at all bad<br />
for the beginning of the season.<br />
She admitted she would<br />
like to get into the national<br />
team and perform in the two<br />
24 | www.athletics-magazine.com<br />
relays (the 4x100 metres and<br />
the 4x400 metres) as she had<br />
done in Beijing. Though she<br />
said this year it was going to<br />
be difficult to expect the same<br />
level of adrenalin as she had<br />
experienced at the Olympics.<br />
Gushchina said that a result<br />
of around 22.60 in the 200<br />
metres at the Championships<br />
of Russia should be enough to<br />
get her into the national team.<br />
At the same time, she admitted<br />
that, following the appearance<br />
of her compatriot Antonina<br />
Krivoshapka, competition<br />
for 400 metres relay places<br />
had intensified considerably.<br />
“I hope that I have already<br />
taken enough rest, both physically<br />
and morally, after the<br />
Games, because last year I<br />
performed in far too many<br />
events both before and after<br />
the Olympics and I was so<br />
tired that I couldn’t pack my<br />
bags in order to fly to a competition<br />
in another country.<br />
The 400 metres continues to<br />
be my most interesting event<br />
because it is necessary to decide<br />
at what stage of the race<br />
you have to invest the most energy.<br />
The 200 metres is much<br />
simpler.” said Gushchina after<br />
her “<strong>Moscow</strong> <strong>Open</strong>” race not<br />
knowing that, at the Russian<br />
Championships, she would<br />
Antonina<br />
Krivoshapka<br />
only finish 7th in the 400 metres.<br />
Gushchina was right to<br />
advise that one should take a<br />
close look at Krivoshapka. Krivoshapka<br />
won the 400 metres<br />
easily at the “<strong>Moscow</strong> <strong>Open</strong>”<br />
with the promising time of<br />
50.24 which she would later<br />
improve, at the Russian Championships,<br />
to 49.29.<br />
The European Athletics Indoor<br />
Champion Anna Alminova<br />
was another Russian star<br />
who turned out for the “<strong>Moscow</strong><br />
<strong>Open</strong>”. She said that she<br />
was here to continue to polish<br />
her form for the final stages of<br />
her preparatory training. She<br />
easily won the 1500 metres in<br />
a time of 4:03.77. Alminova<br />
said that she was just starting<br />
serious training in order to get<br />
a good result at the national<br />
championships.<br />
The performance of another<br />
European Champion, Mariya<br />
Savinova, became the result<br />
of the tournament. She ran
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