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| European indoor 800m champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia. |
The 2004 Olympic Games 800m gold medallist and three-time World Championships medallist is back in training after extensive treatment on his problematic left heel, which caused him to miss this summer’s European Athletics Championships, where he could have potentially challenged Marcin Lewandowski for the 800m gold medal, who was the only European faster than Borzakovskiy over two laps of the track last summer.
Borzakovskiy, the 2000 and 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships 800m champion, has said that he definitely aims to race indoors although he could not confirm his participation in the French capital at this stage.
“I missed almost the entire summer season due to injury, which actually I received several years ago. In 2005, I sprained the outside of my left foot. It healed on its own but it appears that, at some point, not everything had fused together correctly,” explained Borzakovskiy in an interview with the Russian athletics federation website www.rusathletics.org
“All the time, in the past few years, I felt uncomfortable; I thought that there was a lump in my heel. I began to place my foot wrongly; I was trying to protect the sore spot and I even began to limp.
“As a result of this, I also had problems with the arch of my foot. The pain was getting worse, it was very strong, and after taking a scan, it turned out that a large spur had grown. After the Russian championships (on July 13) I decided to finish the season.
“I personally worked with Nikolay Nikolaev, the chief medical officer at the Federal Centre of Traumatology, Orthopaedics and Endoprosthesis in Cheboksary. Firstly, he reduced the inflammation, and then he made the laser therapy. I slowly began to run again after that.
“Now, I am doing another procedure: a shock-wave therapy. There are six sessions with a break of five days and it will take about a month. From the beginning of December, I plan to start full training again.
“I now also have some pairs of ‘magic’ insoles that have been made for me. I have been wearing them for three months. They have been specially made for me and I have them in every pair of my shoes, even my normal ones.
“To get in shape, I need only a month and a half, so I do not rule out that I will compete indoors.”
Borzakovskiy said that he plans to compete at IAAF Indoor Permit Meet in Moscow on February 6 over 600m, the famous Russian ‘Winter’ meeting which is the highlight of that country’s indoor calendar.
He provided one of 10 Russian victories at the last European Athletics Indoor Championships in 2009.
In Torino, he surprised everyone by taking the pace and leading from the front, building up a clear lead by the end of the third lap before unleashing a 25.00 final 200m to claim victory in 1:48.55.
The 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships will be held at the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy arena in Paris between 4-6 March.