Athletics: Russia select athletes for Beijing Olympics at Kazan
Posted: 19 July 2008 0227 hrs

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KAZAN, Russia : Russia's national athletics head coach Valentin Maslakov said Friday that the gold and silver medallists of the Russian championships will be automatically included in the country's Olympic squad.

He added that the third participant in every event will be chosen by the council of coaches from the number of finalists of the national championships, which is taking place here from Thursday till Sunday.

"We already finalised the line-up of our Olympic marathon squad, walking team along with decathlon and heptathlon competitors," Maslakov said.

"Meanwhile four world champions: Yelena Isinbaeva, Tatiana Lebedeva, Yekaterina Volkova and Olga Kaniskina had already assured themselves of a place in Olympic squad."

The head of the country's athletics federation Valentin Balakhnichev said that he has asked the council of coaches to name one or two replacements in every event, adding that the final Olympic team's line-up would be announced after dope testing.

"We will test all of the national championships' medal winners," Balakhnichev said. "Nothing personal. We just need to be sure that all our Olympic athletes are clean."

On Friday Yelena Soboleva performed season's best time at the 800m distance (1:54.85), while Athens Olympic champion Yury Borzakovsky confirmed his top status winning the national title with a 49.59sec result at the same distance.

Gulnara Galkina-Samitova also performed season's best result of nine minutes 08.21seconds in the 3,000-metre steeplechase. Ildar Minshin won the men's event with a time of 8min 22.51sec.

In women's 400m hurdles Yekaterina Bikkert won the event with a result of 54.34sec, which is currently season's fourth in the world, while Alexander Derevyagin won the men's 400m hurdles with a 49.00sec result.

In the absence of Yelena Isinbayeva, world record holder in women's pole vault, Svetlana Feofanova won the championship after she cleared the mark of 4.70metres.

On Thursday in the opening day of the championships Sergei Ivanov won the 10,000-metre distance with a new national record 27min 53.12sec, while Inga Abitova won the same distance in the women's section with the fourth season's result in the world (30:46.70).

Irina Khudoroshkina, who won bronze medal at Atlanta Olympics in 1996, won the shot put event with a 18.68-metre result and will perform in Beijing after a 12-year interval.

Ivan Yushkov won the men's shot put contest with a 20.85-metre result.

- AFP /ls