Russia Starts the Indoor Season With a Bang in the Christmas Cup
The Christmas Cup is the first all-Russian tournament in Moscow, at the Brothers Znamenskiy Arena had been a smashing success, as it produced an impressive number of excellent results.
One of said outstanding results was made by Olympic silver medalist Irina Simigina. She returned to her Long Jump event shortly after childbirth last year, though that particular comeback didn't go as smoothly as she wanted it to be. This year's indoor season however proved to be more successful as she started with an impressive jump of 6.88m. She beat that jump record during the Christmas Cup, ending up with a 6.94 meter mark. This record had give Irina new hope of winning in the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia.
Other outstanding performances include Dmitriy Forshev and Aleksei Baksheev, who clocked in an astonishing 34.67 record for the men's 300m. Tatyana Kivimiagi and Svetlana Shkolina both cleared the women's Hight Jump at 1.94 meters, while the men and women's Pole Vault event was won by Sergei Kocheryanu who hit 5.70 m and Julya Golubchikova, who cleared the bar at 4.5 meters respectively.
Evgeniy Plotnir won the men's Long Jump with a clearing of 7.79 meters, and also won the Triple Jump competition with a record of 17.02 meters. Another interesting note is that Yuriy Borzakovskiy, the 800m Olympic champion had taken part in another race, the 1,000 meter specifically. He had considered it a form of practice and won 4th in 2:24.21, a record that is precisely one second slower than the winner, Aleksandr Krivchenkov.
