Shabunin brilliant in victory

Russian record holder Vyacheslav Shabunin shone over his favorite distance
of 1500 m. As always, he started out at the back of the pack, going through
the 200 m mark in 30,62 (all split times are handtimed and unofficial),
while the leaders covered the first lap in 28,58. Aleksandr Roslavets
played the role of the pacemaker, followed closely by Shabunin`s main
opponent, Andrey Zadorozhniy. The leaders continued to build up the gap
between themselves and Shabunin: 400 Л - 58,22 and 60,46 respectively. At
the 600 m mark the gap reached its peak, 1.27,56 vs 1.30,89, and Vyacheslav,
little by little, started to eat up the meters. The leaders passed the 800
m mark in 1.58,14, while Shabunin clocked 2.00,39. When Roslavets dropped
out of the race, Artikulov took the lead, with Zadorozhniy in second and
Sergei Ivanov in third. Shabunin gradually pulled up and found himself in
forth position at 1000 m (2.29,56). With two laps to go, Vyacheslav eased
forward, then switched gears coming out of the curve and literally blew by
Zadorozhniy who at that point was still trailing behind Artikulov. Now in
the lead, Shabunin hit 1200 m in 2.59,33, and was breaking away fast. They
went around the track once more, and, with 100 m to go, Shabunin was almost
two full seconds (1.81) ahead of Zadorozhniy, who had by then moved into
second position. All this came on the strength of Vyacheslav blazing one
lap`s length, between 1200 m and 1400 m, in a brisk 26,74 sec! His eventual
advantage constituted a full 2 seconds - 3.40,88 over Zadorozhniy`s
3.42,88. Shabunin became the new track record holder, shaving 4 seconds off
the old record held since 1988 by Victor Kalinkin.