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| European triple jump champion Olha Saladuha will spearhead the Ukrainian team at the SPAR European Team Championships in Stockholm. |
Ukraine has been quick off the marks and become the first country to name its squad for the 3rd SPAR European Team Championships, which will be held in Stockholm from 18-19 June.
They finished seventh at the inaugural Championships two years ago, fifth last year and they will be looking to make a further improvement in the Swedish capital.
Among the leading names are three individual medallists from the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona: triple jump winner Olha Saladuha, who currently leads the world in her event with the 14.98m she jumped at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene last Saturday; Barcelona pole vault silver medallist Maksim Mazuryk, and 400m hurdles bronze medallist Stanislav Melnykov.
Contesting the women’s 100m will be the sensation of the indoor season Olesya Povh, who was unbeaten over 60m this winter and capped her 14-race winning streak with a gold medal at the European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Already having shown their form outdoors are the middle-distance pair of Liliya Lobanova and Anna Mishchenko, who are the fastest European women over 800m and 1500m respectively so far this year.
There will also be a lot of interest to see what triple jumper Viktor Kuznetsov can do in Stockholm after causing one of the biggest surprises of the Championships in Bergen 12 months ago.
Kuznetsov produced a personal best of 17.26m, an improvement of three centimetres, in the first round and neither Great Britain’s Phillips Idowu nor France’s Teddy Tamgho could respond, the men who were then the reigning world champions outdoors and indoors eventually having to settle for second and third place respectively.
In addition to Kuznetsov, Saladuha and Mischenko were also winners at last year’s Championships.
Also in Ukraine the team is Serhiy Lebid, nine-times a gold medallist at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, and Tetyana Holovchenko herself a winner at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in 2006. The pair will contest the 5000m races.
Team
100m: Serhiy Smyelyk, Olesya Povh.
200m: Vitaliy Korzh, Mariya Ryemyen.
400m: Volodymyr Burakov, Antonina Yefremova.
800m: Oleh Kayafa, Liliya Lobanova.
1500m: Oleksandr Borysyuk, Anna Mishchenko.
3000m: Mykola Labovskyy, Nataliya Tobias.
5000m: Serhiy Lebed, Tetyana Holovchenko.
3000m steeplechase: Vadym Slobodenyuk, Valeriya Mara.
110m / 100m hurdles: Serghiy Kopanayko, Olena Yanovska.
400m hurdles: Stanislav Melnykov, Hanna Titimets.
High jump: Dmitry Demyanyuk, Vita Stopina.
Pole vault: Maksim Mazuryk, Hanna Sheleh.
Long jump: Sheryf El-Sheryf, Victoriya Molchanova or Inna Akhozova.
Triple jump Viktor Kuznetsov, Olga Saladuha.
Shot put: Andriy Semenov, Olga Holodnaya.
Discus: Oleksiy Semenov, Kateryna Karsk.
Hammer: Olexsiy Sokyrskyy, Irina Sekachyova.
Spear: Dymtro Kosynskyy, Vira Rebryk.
4x100m(additional names): Serhiy Sahutkin, Yuriy Shtanov, Oleksiy Ryemyen, Ruslan Perestyuk; Darya Pizhankova, Yelizaveta Bryzhina, Nataliya Pogrebnyak, Hrystyna Stuy.
4x400m (additional names): Myhaylo Knysh, Yevhen Hutsol, Vitaliy Butrym, Maxsym Nakonechnyy; Kseniya Karandyuk, Yulia Baraley, Alina Lohvynenko, Kateryna Plyashchuk.