Natalya Gorelova zooms to a new Russian record !

National record carries the last day of the Championships Natalya Gorelova`s perseverance and dedication to the sport paid off in a big way with a phenomenal effort in the women`s 1500 m final. She covered the distance in 4.00,72 - a new Russian National record time that elevated her into the third slot on the all-time list, only behind the 3.59,98 WR by USA`s Regina Jacobs (`03) and the 4.00,27 then-WR by Romania`s Doina Melinte(`90).
Gorelova`s performance put to rest a long-time dispute concerning the Russian National record over the distance. While the previous electronically timed mark - 4.03,51 - belonged to Gorelova herself, another middle-distance standout, then-Soviet Union`s Lyudmila Rogacheva, had turned in a 4.02,3 hand-timed performance way back in 1990. In last night`s showing, Gorelova bettered both marks, thus ending the uncertainty.
Standing tall in the shadow of Gorelova`s spectacular performance was Yekaterina Rosenberg, who clocked an awesome 4.02,58 PR in garnering the runner-up honors. Rosenberg`s progression as of late is quite impressive - she started the season out with a modest 4.12,27 ("Russian Winter", 01/30), improved to 4.07,12 at the Moscow City Championships (02/10) and slashed just short of another 5 seconds off her PR last night, dipping under the old National record time! Even more incredible is the fact that her best
effort prior to this indoor season had been a mere 4.16,33, run in the summer of 2000 on a 400-meter track.
The champion and the silver medalist are both coached by Sergey Yepishin
and Yekaterina Podkopayeva, a renowned coaching couple. Incidentally, Irina Vashentseva, another one of their flock of talented runners, played the role of a pacemaker in the race. Split times were recorded as follows: 400 m - 61,0; 800 m - 2.07,3; 1200 m - 3.12,3.
Reigning European Indoor champion Yekaterina Puzanova, surging to a PR of 4.04,77 just to hold on to the bronze, was followed by Yulia Kosenkova, who, despite improving her indoor personal best to a very respectable 4.05,45, failed to medal in producing one of the fastest 4th-place finishes in history.

Svetlana Masterkova and Natalya Gorelova at foto.