In the winter season, Russian track and field athletes do not have as many starts as in the summer season, and therefore the “Russian Winter” stands apart here, which always brings together the strongest in their events. This year, a number of athletes even expressed dissatisfaction that their disciplines were not represented in the competition program. In particular, the national pole vault champion Polina Knorozi and the 2012 Olympic silver medalist in long jump Elena Sokolova complained about this. The organizers explained this decision by the low level of competition in these sports.
It was possible to increase the degree of rivalry by inviting foreign guests, because for the first time since 2015 the tournament received international status, which it lost due to the suspension of ARAF membership in World Athletics. However, only one foreign athlete arrived in Moscow - pole vaulter Matvey Volkov from Belarus. Nevertheless, the tournament turned out to be popular with fans: all tickets to the stands were sold out a few days before the event.
The first medals of the “Russian Winter” were played at a distance of 60 m hurdles for men. In the absence of Sergei Shubenkov, who traditionally misses the winter season, 22-year-old Semyon Manakov snatched the victory, ahead of the country's summer champion Anatoly Kiselyov. Among the girls, Victoria Pogrebnyak excelled at a similar distance, and in the smooth sprint, Kristina Makarenko still had no equal. She won the competition for the ninth time in a row in her career - this is an absolute record for the tournament. This time the runner covered the 60-meter dash in 7.16 seconds, improving on her best result of the season.
“It feels like we managed to accomplish everything that was planned. There was very good competition today. I felt it on the path. Perhaps this gave such a result today. There is a good track here, but very bad pads. Unfortunately, nothing was done about this. I'm looking forward to the Russian Championship with a special spirit. I would like to run in the CSKA arena, there is a very good track there. I hope that they will be able to improve the season’s record,” Christina shared after the performance.
In the women's 400-meter race, Polina Miller, who has been competing under a new name since this season, also won as expected. Last fall, the multiple Russian champion married sprinter Yaroslav Tkalich.
“The feelings (after changing my last name) have not changed. At first I thought that I would be confused when they announced me, but everything is fine,” the runner said with a smile on Match TV.
Polina’s husband also competed at the start line, but did not reach gold in the 60m race. Yaroslav became only second, and Konstantin Krylov won first place. Nevertheless, the Tkalich family budget received a substantial replenishment during the evening. As announced by the organizers, athletes will receive 200 thousand rubles for winning, silver medalists will earn 120 thousand, and bronze medalists will earn 80 thousand.
Among the men in the four-hundred-meter race, Saveliy Savlukov was considered the favorite, who in early January at the “Christmas Starts” in Yekaterinburg set the highest European achievement in the 600-meter race. However, things did not work out for Sergei Klevtsov’s student in the capital. From the beginning of the race, he found himself behind two rivals, and in order to overtake them, Savely had to run along the second track. He was ahead of Nikita Lenchikov, but he no longer had the strength to catch up with Alexander Masyutenko.
In the women's 1500 m race, fans were waiting for the rivalry between Svetlana Aplachkina and Olga Vovk, which has already become a classic at this distance. However, this time the Rostov athlete was unable to intervene in the fight for gold. Instead, Lyubov Dubrovskaya tried to impose competition on Aplachkina, and almost overtook the national champion at the finish line, but Svetlana controlled the situation and accelerated in time.
The men won awards in the 800-meter race, where Konstantin Kholmogorov had no equal. He was almost a second ahead of silver medalist Nikolai Verbitsky, and third place went to Konstantin Plokhotnikov.
As always, the competitions in the jumping events turned out to be interesting. Thus, in the men's height, Ilya Ivanyuk and Danil Lysenko competed, who for the first time since the end of the latter's disqualification period failed to identify the strongest in the competition. They took all the heights consistently on the first attempt and even made mistakes simultaneously: two misfires at a height of 2.33 and postponed attempts at 2.35. The athletes refused the jump-off, and both received a gold medal. Third place was taken by former Russian junior champion Yaroslav Kutkova.
As Ivanyuk explained, during the tournament he developed pain in his foot, so he endured the last attempt, and then performed it in sneakers, and not in spikes. In connection with this, he did not continue the struggle for sole leadership.
“There will be more important competitions ahead, and you need to prepare for them in full health, without risking anything. Challenge for the season? At the end of February we will see how people are jumping around the world, and we will be guided by these numbers. The Russian Championship will take place at the same time. In the meantime, Danil and I are setting the pace for this season, the guys will be guided by our results. In any case, the goal is to keep up with the global results,” quotes the bronze medalist of the 2019 World Championship “Championship”.
In the women's sector, Natalya Spiridonova won her second consecutive victory of the season. The Pskov jumper again, as at the “Battle of the Sexes,” cleared the bar at 1.93 meters. Already in the rank of winner, she tried to set a personal record, but did not conquer the height of 1.96 in any of the three attempts. Maria Lasitskene took second place. She managed to fly 1.91 m - the Olympic champion has not yet jumped higher this winter.
“This is my best result in a sluggish and strange season. But I jumped better than in January. I should probably be happy that when I enter competitions, I continue to fight, compete, and perform at every height. I should be happy, but I would like it to be better. But that's all I have at the moment. There are a huge number of reasons for such a speech. I think there is no exact answer to the question of what is happening. The most important thing is that I go to training, go to competitions, try...,” Maria shared after the competition.
In the triple jump, the duel between Ekaterina Koneva and Daria Nidbaikina ended in victory for the latter, although the 2013 world vice-champion fought to the last. She was in the lead after the first two attempts, when Evgeniy Ter-Avanesov’s ward flew to 14.06 m. Ekaterina responded with a jump of 14 m exactly, but was unable to improve the result. At the same time, the athlete was not at all upset about second place, since, according to her, she did not plan to compete in the winter.
“These are my first jumps after the “Queen of Sports” - I haven’t done a triple jump since August. Therefore, I did not have any hopes for certain results. Today it’s 14 m. This can be compared to what they would say to me at five in the morning: “Katya, go jump to 14 m.” It's great that I jumped 14m without jumping at all. This says something. There is a start, there is a starting point from which we can work by the summer,” said Koneva.
And the only event where the victory went to a non-Russian athlete was pole vaulting. Gold will be taken to Belarus by Matvey Volkov, who flew 5.72 m, silver went to Alexander Solovyov (5.65), and bronze went to Mikhail Shmykov (5.55).