Russia’s head athletics coach Valentin Maslakov hailed the team spirit of his country’s defence of their SPAR European Team Championships title last weekend.
The victory confirmed Russia’s position as the number one athletics nation on the continent.
“We had no apparent failures; we scored more points than last year. The team rallied around each other, and worked well with the officials on the team. Everybody felt for each other; everybody supported each other,” said Maslakov, in an interview with the Russian athletics federation website www.rusthaletics.com.
“When Darya Pishchalnikova finished her last attempt [after the women’s discus, when Russia took an unassailable lead four events before the end], we all just stood up and roared. The guys who did not do as well as we had hoped, came and apologized after their events. This had never happened before.”
Russia could boast of nine victories across the weekend but had very few weak events.
Particularly impressive were a number of performances by their men in the distance events, several of whom got double figure points when they were predicted to finish well down.
“The women of the team, as always, were expected to be at the front of their events but from among the men, the only ones who had European-leading marks were Zagorniy, Dmitrik and Menkov. All the rest were predicted to finish in sixth place or lower.
“It is definitely difficult in this situation to win a team tournament, but many rose to the occasion. We took to Sweden those athletes who their coaches had told us were rounding into form and many produced their best result of the season in Stockholm,” reflected Maslakov.
“Maksim Dyldin ran brilliantly in the 400 metres, he coped perfectly with his task. Tanya Dektyareva won the 100m hurdles for the second consecutive year. In Stockholm, she was seeded into the B race but then was faster than everyone in the A race.
“I also want to mention [high jumper] Aleksiy Dmitrik, who didn’t win, but conducted himself with dignity in the field. This championship changed my attitude towards him. Previously, I had doubts about his fighting qualities.
“Mariya Savinova had a good run over 800m and I have no doubt that she will be in pretty good shape for the World Championships. Valentin Smirnov showed one of the best results in recent years from a Russian in the men's 1500m. He isn’t yet a world class runner but the guy should be given the opportunity to start as often as possible in such company, and he'll run even faster.'