18th June 2012 07:21
The 54th Znamensky Memorial meeting, an European Athletics Outdoor Classic Meeting, in the Moscow suburb of Zhukovsky saw a fast women 1500m with Yekaterina Poistogova clocked in a new personal best of 4:00.11 to win on Sunday.
Poistogova, still just 21, clocked the third fastest time by a European this year and Russians now dominate the 2012 European 1500m rankings with the top eight women.
'I do not often run 1500m, my main distance is 800m, so my coach said that if just took a couple of seconds off my personal record (4:13.1 indoors), then that will be fine but, 200m, before the finish, I felt that I still have some strength. I realized that I could do better than just hang onto third place, I could win. However, all my preparations for this season have been done for the 800m and that's still the distance I'm concentrating on at the Russian Championships,” commented Poistogova.
World indoor record holder Yelena Soboleva finished second with 4:01.14 and Yekaterina Martynova was third in 4:02.75.
Norwegian high jumper Tonje Angelsen impressed when she cleared 1.95m to equal her personal best and win on count back from Russia's Irina Gordeyeva, who cleared the same height. Bulgaria's Mirela Demireva was third with 1.92m.
Russia's Anna Avdeyeva, the 2010 European Athletics Championships shot put bronze medallist, achieved a season's best of 19.54m and her team mate 2011 hammer world champion Tatyana Lysenko threw an excellent 75.48m to win her event.
Home wins on the track went to 400m hurdles world leader Irina Davydova in 54.61; Yulia Gushchina took the main 200m race in 22.95 but Olga Belkina. Benefiting from better wind conditions, actually won the 200m B-race in 20.90 while Lyudmila Litvinova triumphed in the 400m with 51.76.
Belarus' Alina Talay won the 100m hurdles in a personal best of 12.79 and Russia's Olga Samylova also went into new territory when she clocked 12.82.
In men track events, Lithuanian 100m record holder Rytis Sakalauskas flew to a wind-assisted 10.08 to win from Türkiye's Ramil Guliyev, who clocked 10.15. Russia's Aleksander Brednev finished third in 10.19 but was the fastest man in the heats with the same time, a new personal best, in legal wind conditions. Ukraine's Oleksandr Osmolovych was the 800m winner in 1:46.97.
In the men's field events, there was a trio of Russian victories. Aleksandr Menkov was the best in the long jump with 8.06m while former world and European triple jump champion Aleksey Fyodorov won with 16.55m Hammer thrower Igor Vinichenko saw his best effort go out to 77.29m.
Click here for complete results.