On August 2, the Russian Athletics Championship starts in Cheboksary.
This season, this is one of the two main tournaments, along with the Spartakiad, which will be held at the end of the month.
Moreover, the latter has the status of the final of the Queen of Sports series, organized to provide athletes with decent competitive practice under the conditions of suspension.
And without participation in the national championship it will be impossible to take part in it, even if the gained rating allows.
By the way, the winners of the stages are paid prize money in the amount of 50, 30 and 20 thousand rubles, respectively, and according to the results of the entire season, the winner in the "Absolute Leader" nomination will be determined.
The best athlete and the athlete in the ranking will receive 500 thousand rubles each, those who take second places will receive 300 thousand, and the third - 200 thousand.
All leading athletes will come to fight for the title in the capital of Chuvashia.
The VFLA has prepared personal gold numbers for last year's champions, and the leaders of the national season will perform with blue ones.
Brightest of all among the Russians flashed Angelica Sidorova.
Even despite the fact that she was very delayed with the start and entered the sector for the first time only at the end of June, at the Moscow Championship on July 17, the silver medalist of the Olympic Games in Tokyo showed the best result of the season in the world - 4.86 meters.
This is a centimeter higher than jumped a few days earlier in Eugene by American Kathy Nageotte, who became world champion.
A native of Moscow, having overcome this height, even burst into tears of resentment: obviously, she could again take the gold of the World Cup, if not for the suspension.
At the national championship, all other shestovichkas will probably only have to fight for the second step of the podium, and the main favorite in this fight is Polina Knoroz, who already took 4.70 meters this summer.
Maria Lasitskene will perform in the high jump sector.
The main competition for her will be the current champion of the country Maria Kochanova and the winner of the world championship among juniors Natalya Spiridonova.
It was these three girls who recorded the best attempts in the current season.
The top-list is headed by the Olympic champion with an indicator of 1.95 meters.
Her young rivals overcame the bar at a height of 1.92.
Just a centimeter less - Tatyana Ermachenkova and Nadezhda Andryukhina, who will also compete for a place on the podium.
Lasitskene is able to win the tournament even in the training mode in which she performed at all previous competitions.
The main question is whether Maria will be able to cope with her nerves.
At the Path to Olympus tournament, she shocked the audience by bursting into tears before the decisive attempt and could not calm down for a long time.
She later admitted that such a tantrum happened to her for the first time and was the result of the situation in the world.
In the men's sector, viewers, alas, will not see the long-awaited duel between Mikhail Akimenko and Ilya Ivanyuk.
The current champion of Russia has not yet recovered from his injury and misses the summer season.
This is bad news for Ivanyuk, since a high result could well have been born in the fight between compatriots, especially since he planned to overcome 2.40 meters this season.
At the Russian Cup in Bryansk, he did not succeed, so the next attempt will most likely be at the national championship.
An additional incentive for the athlete will be the fact that during the World Cup Mutaz Barshim took away the best result of the season from him, which had been holding since June 7, when the Russian took 2.34 meters at the Znamensky Memorial.
The Qatari in Eugene flew three centimeters higher.
In running, attention will traditionally be riveted to short hurdles, where Sergey Shubenkov performs.
The ex-world champion considers this season to be unloading and recovery after an injury that prevented him from taking part in the Tokyo Games.
Despite this, from start to start, he shows ever better results.
If at the Russian team championship at the end of May he covered the distance in 13.59 seconds, then at the National Cup in Bryansk on July 2 - in 13.27 seconds.
The closest to the titled athlete was the very young 17-year-old Nikita Velikotsky, who showed 13.48 seconds at the youth Spartakiad (U18).
By the way, this is a new country record for this age category, and even Shubenkov did not run so fast at one time.
And among adult athletes, Anatoly Kiselyov (13.60) and Artyom Makarenko (13.61) have the best results after the leader.
In many ways, it depends on their performance and ability to compete whether Shubenkov can improve his time.
As you know, he is able to run very fast if his opponents breathe in the back.
Also on the tracks it will be interesting to watch the duel between Antonina Krivoshapka and Polina Miller at a distance of 400 meters.
The multiple World Cup winner was preparing specifically for the national championship, having missed most of the starts of the “Queen of Sports”.
This is understandable, because the age-old athlete has been plagued by injuries for several years, and she tries to save her body for the most important competitions.
At the Znamensky Memorial, Antonina did not show a very high result - 52.73.
In Cheboksary, you should expect a faster run from her.
Miller, on the contrary, started the season brightly, running out of 51 seconds (50.88) in the very first tournament, but then her performance dipped noticeably, which, however, did not stop her from winning the Russian Cup and the national junior championship (U23).
Ekaterina Renzhina, Veronika Arkhipova and Vera Filatova, who are also in the top 5 of the Russian season, will certainly join the fight for medals.
At a similar distance in men, you should pay attention to Saveliy Savlukov, who is called the main rising star in the lap.
The ward of Sergey Klevtsov is progressing by leaps and bounds, and at the Znamensky Memorial he almost broke the country's record among athletes under 23, which is 45.12 seconds.
Saveliy ran for 45.18, and so far this is his best result of the season.
But the runner is determined to improve it at the Russian Championship and win the first adult title in his career.
By the way, the country's absolute record at this distance has been held for 40 years.
It was installed by Viktor Markin in the final of the Moscow Olympics on July 30, 1980.