Russia's Moscow medal hopes • 18 medals

[bushop]

Which Russians will win all these medals?

Russia Must Be 1st at Athletics Worlds - Official
02/11/2012
“The national team should take the first place at these championships,” federation chief Valentin Balakhnichev said, adding that Russia's team would prepare "at a very high level".

[bushop]

Daegu World Championship medalists:

01.) Anastasiya Kapachinskaya (400 metres)
02.) Mariya Savinova (800 metres)
03.) Natalya Antyukh (400 metres hurdles)
04.) Yuliya Zaripova (3000 metres steeplechase)
05.) Olga Kaniskina (20 kilometres walk)
06.) Anisya Kirdyapkina (20 kilometres walk)
07.) Anna Chicherova (high jump)
08.) Svetlana Feofanova (pole vault)
09.) Olga Kucherenko (long jump)
10.) Mariya Abakumova (javelin)
11.) Tatyana Lysenko (hammer)
12.) Tatyana Chernova (heptathlon)
13.) Yuriy Borzakovskiy (800 metres)
14.) Valeriy Borchin (20 kilometres walk)
15.) Vladimir Kanaykin (20 kilometres walk)
16.) Sergey Bakulin (50 kilometres walk)
17.) Denis Nizhegorodov (50 kilometres walk)
18.) Aleksey Dmitrik (high jump)


World Championship top-12:


T&F News World Championship top-10 pick:

[bushop]

2012 Olympic medalists....

01.) Sergey Kirdyapkin (50 kilometres walk) gold
02.) Ivan Ukhov (high jump) gold
03.) Mariya Savinova (800 metres) gold
04.) Ekaterina Poistogova (800 metres) bronze
05.) Natalya Antyukh (400 metres hurdles) gold
06.) Yuliya Zaripova (3000 metres steeplechase) gold
07.) Women (4x400 metres) silver
08.) Elena Lashmanova (20 kilometres walk) gold
09.) Olga Kaniskina (20 kilometres walk) silver
10.) Anna Chicherova (high jump) gold
11.) Svetlana Shkolina (high jump) gold
12.) Yelena Isinbayeva (pole vault) bronze
13.) Yelena Sokolova (long jump) silver
14.) Yevgeniya Kolodko (shot put) silver
15.) Darya Pishchalnikova (discus) silver
16.) Tatyana Lysenko (hammer) gold
17.) Tatyana Chernova (heptathlon) bronze

[bushop]

prospects ...

[t_monk]

Chichirova - HJ
Antyukh - 400mH
Zarapova - 3000 ST
Savinova - 800
Abakumova - JT
Ukhov - HJ
Lysenko - HT
Krivoshopka - 400
Sokolova - LJ
Isinbaeva - PV
Chernova - Hept
Lashmanova - Walks
Male walker

All those are gold medal prospects and not necessarily long shots either. That would be 13 gold medals...

[eldanielfire]

Chichirova - HJ
Antyukh - 400mH
Zarapova - 3000 ST
Savinova - 800
Abakumova - JT
Ukhov - HJ
Lysenko - HT
Krivoshopka - 400
Sokolova - LJ
Isinbaeva - PV
Chernova - Hept
Lashmanova - Walks
Male walker

All those are gold medal prospects and not necessarily long shots either. That would be 13 gold medals...

Add to that the woman's Discuss, woman's marathon and woman's relays. I have no doubt that the Russin girl's will come out on top by some distance even with a few misses there (the jumps can go in either direction on the day) and it will help the Jamaican's will eat into the American's medal counts where the USA is traditionally strong in the sprints.

It makes you wonder what the men are doing, besides being distracted by the best looking women in sport.

[andyjgt]

Could (on a VERY good day! - and a bad one for Lavillenie) win the vault (Starodubtsev?)
Maybe Morgunov in the LJ (well he has jumped further than Rutherford's OG winning distance and matched Greg's PB), Menkov could medal too
Iordan or Tarabin in the JT (if Walcott can...)
VERY long shot...Shubenkov at 110H (could deffo get a medal though)
Maybe even HT (Zagornyi on a good day/Litvinov even?!)

Very much doubt there'll be five golds out of that, but there's a good chance of four medals, maybe even five.

ETA: Again it won't be gold, but Borza could yet (though I doubt it) have a last hurrah with another bronze, and the men's 4x4 team could win one too. (Hope Kruglyakov is on that team - Round-timbers of the Valentinas indeed!)

[fasttrack85]

I really hope Krivoshapka gets her shit together. I think Sanya needs to be forced back into sub 49 territory again.

[az2004]

men are too busy making big bucks palying hockey and soccer

nov 14 usa plays russia in russia, i;ll take russia by a couple goals

fabio capello is their coach

[bushop]

Putin: Russia Hoped for Better at London 2012
06/11/2012
"Now it's extremely important to take measures that will help our athletes succeed and be worthy representatives of Russia at the world's sporting arenas," Putin said.

[eldanielfire]

I was just thinking, what could be the most likely outcomes that would have a raging Putin shoot the entire Russian Athletics team in a rage

Chichirova - HJ - A fully fit Blanka Vlašić should be fully capable of beating her in a competition that can always go a few different ways and who knows it Tia Hellebaut might still ahve it. Also 21 year old Brigetta Barrett likes genunely to be the next big thing in High Jump.
Antyukh - 400mH - Demus is always capable of winning here. It can really go either way and Antyukh once she emotionally earned the gold seemed to lose the focus in her post Olympic races.
Zarapova - 3000 ST - IMO close to unstoppable when fit.
Savinova - 800 - By some way the most consistent championship performer and her ability to judge where she should be and when to go for it in the 800m is sublime. I doubt she will blow it but who knows what Caster Semenya will do when she learns how to judge the race (and no I don't think she blew it on purpose)
Abakumova - JT - Up agains the bets of all time. Will need Barbara Spotakova to underperform really.
Lysenko - HT - Hopefully Anita Wlodarczyk or Betty Heidler will best her.
Krivoshopka - 400 - Seems to be knocking on the door, as have been a few other Russian 400m runners, but never seesm to glue it together in championship finals.
Sokolova - LJ
Isinbaeva - PV - If she gets back to her best she is unbeatable. However I feel she won't and Suhr has ner number. Also Da Silver looks veyr good, she seems to be the woman who can transfer her pure speed into the height best and if she gets technically better who knows.
Chernova - Hept - If Ennis performs Chernova can't seem to keep glueing PBs toethe rin one Heptathlon like Britain's golden girl can. I should say while 2013 may be a bit earily for her Kristina Savitskaya looks like she may well out do Chernova in the future but has possible the biggest competitive depth of competition at a similar age group in ages with Johnson-Thompson, Ikauniece, Schippers, Dadic, even Broersen. Let us not forget a possible return to form for Nataliya Dobrynska next year as well.
Lashmanova - Walks - Can only be beate by another Russian so safe there.

Ukhov - HJ -IMO Russians only T&F male favorite. It's not too much to think there is a big group who could upset the odds.

[gh]

...
Abakumova - JT - Up agains the bets of all time. Will need Barbara Spotakova to underperform really.....

The WR holder is not going to be a problem: Špotáková is pregnant and won't compete in 2013.

[Gabriella]

I Chernova - Hept - If Ennis performs Chernova can't seem to keep glueing PBs toethe rin one Heptathlon like Britain's golden girl can. I should say while 2013 may be a bit earily for her Kristina Savitskaya looks like she may well out do Chernova in the future but has possible the biggest competitive depth of competition at a similar age group in ages with Johnson-Thompson, Ikauniece, Schippers, Dadic, even Broersen. Let us not forget a possible return to form for Nataliya Dobrynska next year as well.

I fear we have seen the last of Dobrynska after her London disaster. Seh can come back, she proved that indoors in Istanbul, but I wonder whether she has the fight in her now.

On the heptathlon, as Chernova is defending champion Russia can have four women. You would think Savitskaya, Bolshova, Kurban and Boginskaya will fight for the remaining three spots. Savitskaya does look like a future medalist, but her improvement was so great this year she may even threaten in 2013.

[eldanielfire]

I Chernova - Hept - If Ennis performs Chernova can't seem to keep glueing PBs toethe rin one Heptathlon like Britain's golden girl can. I should say while 2013 may be a bit earily for her Kristina Savitskaya looks like she may well out do Chernova in the future but has possible the biggest competitive depth of competition at a similar age group in ages with Johnson-Thompson, Ikauniece, Schippers, Dadic, even Broersen. Let us not forget a possible return to form for Nataliya Dobrynska next year as well.

I fear we have seen the last of Dobrynska after her London disaster. Seh can come back, she proved that indoors in Istanbul, but I wonder whether she has the fight in her now.

On the heptathlon, as Chernova is defending champion Russia can have four women. You would think Savitskaya, Bolshova, Kurban and Boginskaya will fight for the remaining three spots. Savitskaya does look like a future medalist, but her improvement was so great this year she may even threaten in 2013.

I was thinking the very same thing, but the half dozen genuine quality of 18-21 year olds in the Heptathlon making big jumps looks ridiculous, a bit of a global golden generation. The future Heptathlon medalists will simply be those who over come their weak spots. Ikauniece (shot put and long jump), Schippers (her jumps and 800m),Savitskkaya (long jump and possibly her Javelin) and Johnson-Thompson (her throws and long jump) also made big leaps and are posting outragious scores for young heptathletes. i fear the rather uninformed British commenattors ar already looking at KJT as the next big 7 event thing when other young Heptathletes by my observations are progressing a tad faster and have less weaknesses. Laura Ikauniece in particular looks like she has something about her, that ability to really push herself in every event and seems to be developing in near identical pace to Savitskaya. I can see even recent scores for Heptathlon bronze medals simply not being close to what is needed in the near future.

[eldanielfire]

...
Abakumova - JT - Up agains the bets of all time. Will need Barbara Spotakova to underperform really.....

The WR holder is not going to be a problem: Špotáková is pregnant and won't compete in 2013.

I completely forgot about that

[mump boy]

The future Heptathlon medalists will simply be those who over come their weak spots. Ikauniece (shot put and long jump), Schippers (her jumps and 800m),Savitskkaya (long jump and possibly her Javelin) and Johnson-Thompson (her throws and long jump)

I don't think the LJ is a weak spot for the WJ champion

[eldanielfire]

The future Heptathlon medalists will simply be those who over come their weak spots. Ikauniece (shot put and long jump), Schippers (her jumps and 800m),Savitskkaya (long jump and possibly her Javelin) and Johnson-Thompson (her throws and long jump)

I don't think the LJ is a weak spot for the WJ champion

Other heptathlon athletes around her age are jumping a tad further at the moment in competition. I'm not doubting her ability seeing as she could already realistically be competiting in the actual long jump (I know she is divided on which direction to go in), but as we know doing it in isolation and doing it in the Heptathlon are two different beasts.

[bushop]

Russian Moscow 2013 medal plan is revealed
16.03.2013
"In Moscow we intend to win gain 18 medals, 6-8 of them – gold..."

[GDAWG]

Russia has a decent chance for second place. However, Russia is like Jamaica, Ethiopia and Kenya.....not strong in every aspect of the sport like the United States is. We all know that Jamaica's strengths is in the shorter sprints and hurdles. Except for Shubenkov, that part of the sport is a weakness for Russia. Obviously, Ethiopia and Kenya are very strong in the distance events.

First place is not realistic for Russia in Moscow until they address their weakness.

[Jon]

The future Heptathlon medalists will simply be those who over come their weak spots. Ikauniece (shot put and long jump), Schippers (her jumps and 800m),Savitskkaya (long jump and possibly her Javelin) and Johnson-Thompson (her throws and long jump)

I don't think the LJ is a weak spot for the WJ champion

Other heptathlon athletes around her age are jumping a tad further at the moment in competition. I'm not doubting her ability seeing as she could already realistically be competiting in the actual long jump (I know she is divided on which direction to go in), but as we know doing it in isolation and doing it in the Heptathlon are two different beasts.

I don't think KJT's long jump in London was really indicative of what she's like as a competitor in that event within a hep. When she scored 6248 in Kladno earlier in the year, she jumped 6.41m which was within just 5cm of her PB at the time. When she won the world youth title in 2009, she added 14cm to her LJ PB within that heptathlon. And earlier in 2012 she added 11cm to her indoor long jump PB in a three-event multis competition.

She's still a bit young to truly judge if the LJ is a problem event for her within a heptathlon, but based on what she's done so far I wouldn't worry about it. Her 6.19m in London was just a blip. Everything else about her past record (based on PBs set at major champs) shows that she's a pretty good competitor all-round.

[eldanielfire]

Russian Moscow 2013 medal plan is revealed
16.03.2013
"In Moscow we intend to win gain 18 medals, 6-8 of them – gold..."

6-8 Gold.

I'm guessing the most likely golds are:

Women's High Jump
Men's High Jump (2 or 3 challengers there)
Women's Steeplechase
Women's 800m (Two good challengers there)
Women's Javelin
Hammer Throw (sadly)
Women's walks
Men's Walks

The strong other possibilities are women's 400m hurdles, Women's Pole Vault, women's 400m, Women's shot putt and the men's triple jump. Outside bets (some way outside) would be the men's 110m hurdles, Women's Long Jump, men's Long jump, Heptathlon and the women's 400m relay.

Oh and the women's 1500m, because it seems anybody can wake up, have breakfast beat the drug testers and get a gold on any given day at the moment. I think the 2011 world champs contained almost a completely different finalist list than the 2012 Olympics.

[eldanielfire]

Russia has a decent chance for second place. However, Russia is like Jamaica, Ethiopia and Kenya.....not strong in every aspect of the sport like the United States is. We all know that Jamaica's strengths is in the shorter sprints and hurdles. Except for Shubenkov, that part of the sport is a weakness for Russia. Obviously, Ethiopia and Kenya are very strong in the distance events.

First place is not realistic for Russia in Moscow until they address their weakness.

I don't think this is true exactly, if anything Russia is starting to win in more diverse ways than the USA.

An important point is that a number of the USAs gold last time came from athletes who just won't expect to win gold now. It also doesn't help that the carribean nations are increasingly eating into the USAs strengths in short distances but not Russia's strenths. I'm not sure Jeter, Demus, Phillips, Taylor, Williams and Simpson will bring the gold back like they did in 2011, where as Russia's gold medalists are as good as ever (if motivated) and have added things like the men's long jump, high jump, triple jump and hurdles to threaten and the women's 400m hurdles and throws have improved. I would only expect the heptathlon to be the area they slip back in.

[eldanielfire]

The future Heptathlon medalists will simply be those who over come their weak spots. Ikauniece (shot put and long jump), Schippers (her jumps and 800m),Savitskkaya (long jump and possibly her Javelin) and Johnson-Thompson (her throws and long jump)

I don't think the LJ is a weak spot for the WJ champion

Other heptathlon athletes around her age are jumping a tad further at the moment in competition. I'm not doubting her ability seeing as she could already realistically be competiting in the actual long jump (I know she is divided on which direction to go in), but as we know doing it in isolation and doing it in the Heptathlon are two different beasts.

I don't think KJT's long jump in London was really indicative of what she's like as a competitor in that event within a hep. When she scored 6248 in Kladno earlier in the year, she jumped 6.41m which was within just 5cm of her PB at the time. When she won the world youth title in 2009, she added 14cm to her LJ PB within that heptathlon. And earlier in 2012 she added 11cm to her indoor long jump PB in a three-event multis competition.

She's still a bit young to truly judge if the LJ is a problem event for her within a heptathlon, but based on what she's done so far I wouldn't worry about it. Her 6.19m in London was just a blip. Everything else about her past record (based on PBs set at major champs) shows that she's a pretty good competitor all-round.

I wasn't intending to use that comment as a judgement of her long term development, just where she is now. She has lots of potential. My main concern is that during 2012, while KJT made big jumps some of her rivals roughly her age made bigger ones by the time of the Olympics. Though we'll see I see that Laura Ikauniece has suffered training problems due to illness this winter and in good news split up from her boyfriend

[JumboElliott]

I'm taking the under.

[Fortius19]

Chichirova - HJ - A fully fit Blanka Vlašić should be fully capable of beating her in a competition that can always go a few different ways and who knows it Tia Hellebaut might still ahve it.

I'm pretty sure Hellebaut retired. Again.

[iain]

Could (on a VERY good day! - and a bad one for Lavillenie) win the vault (Starodubtsev?)
Maybe Morgunov in the LJ (well he has jumped further than Rutherford's OG winning distance and matched Greg's PB), Menkov could medal too
Iordan or Tarabin in the JT (if Walcott can...)
VERY long shot...Shubenkov at 110H (could deffo get a medal though)
Maybe even HT (Zagornyi on a good day/Litvinov even?!)

Very much doubt there'll be five golds out of that, but there's a good chance of four medals, maybe even five.

ETA: Again it won't be gold, but Borza could yet (though I doubt it) have a last hurrah with another bronze, and the men's 4x4 team could win one too. (Hope Kruglyakov is on that team - Round-timbers of the Valentinas indeed!)

I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. Apparently he got busted at the Russian Indoor Champs

[eldanielfire]

Chichirova - HJ - A fully fit Blanka Vlašić should be fully capable of beating her in a competition that can always go a few different ways and who knows it Tia Hellebaut might still ahve it.

I'm pretty sure Hellebaut retired. Again.

I made that post months before she retired. Again

[Jon]

My main concern is that during 2012, while KJT made big jumps, some of her rivals roughly her age made bigger ones by the time of the Olympics.

I've continued this over on this thread as it seemed more fitting!

[Fortius19]

I made that post months before she retired. Again

Ahhhhh, missed that.