The XXIX International Guzman Kosanov Memorial Tournament has started in Almaty, which has turned into a real test of our athletics strength. The national team of Kazakhstan entered this tournament in a very weakened state due to the departure of a very large delegation of strong athletes to the Universiade in Naples, as well as two Olya – Rypakova and Safronova – to the Diamond League stage. That’s where the nearest reserve had a chance to show that we have someone to rely on, even in the absence of established favorites. And our national team has successfully passed this test of strength.
The first competitive day of the Gusman Kosanov Memorial began in such a way that I wanted to close my eyes and not open my eyes – Kazakh athletes seemed so uncompetitive this morning. No, we won medals regularly, fortunately, the national team of our country, as the host of the competition, had the largest number. But we were very far from gold medals.
It all started with the 5000 m men’s race, Islam Amangos finished generally the last of those who reached the finish line. And there were only five of the eight who started on this hot morning!
The girls brought us the first medals at this distance. However, only three athletes took part in the competition, two of whom represented our country, so two awards were guaranteed to us. But which ones exactly?
The athletes started slowly. Moreover, for a long time our duo was “dragged” by Uzbek stylist Mavlyuda Madalieva. Her running technique involuntarily attracted attention: short steps, and bodywork resembled rather sharp twitches. But, as it turned out, such a technique has the right to exist. Only by the middle of the race did Olga Bogomolskaya dare to lead the race, but the heat became a fatal factor for her. Four laps before the end of the race, she was completely “covered”, and she just set a goal to finish without fighting for any result. Victoria Sergeeva could not overtake Madalieva and lost to the Uzbek for 20 seconds!
In the 200 m run after the preliminary races, none of the representatives of Kazakhstan were even close to the top three winners! And both men and women. Rustem Almagambetov from East Kazakhstan Region did not play for the national team of Kazakhstan, and Vladislav Boyko turned out to be the best of our team with the best result of the day. The final did not change much either, where Boyko rose only to fifth place with absolutely no international seconds as a result. Initially, it was not necessary for the girls to get into the prize–winners – the strongest of our team here was Alexandra Sytina from Almaty, who is only 16 years old at the moment and it is still very early for her to compete with adults.
The first gold medal of the national team of Kazakhstan was brought by the Asian Champion among girls in pole vault Polina Ivanova. Skeptics, of course, would say that, they say, there were only two jumpers in the sector, and both played for Kazakhstan. And they would have been right, but the result that Polina showed would have put them all to shame – 3.87 m! This is the second result in Ivanova’s career, and she has never jumped like this in the open air. The only time she showed a higher result was when she performed indoors in Ust-Kamenogorsk (3.90 m). So even if the best forces of the Asian pole vault had gathered at the Kosanov Memorial in Almaty, it would not have been easy for them to face Polina. The bad thing is that we have only horns and legs left from the girl’s team, which is amazing in terms of competition. Yana Toibayeva finished her sports career at the very start, and Asian Champion Anastasia Ermakova continues treatment, although she was announced for these competitions. As a result, we have only two people left from the powerful competition – not a lot.
The situation began to change as the sun began to rise higher and the heat became more merciless. In the 800 m race, we saw a desperate fight for second place between a Tajikistani Odilshokh Ismatov and a Karaganda Sergey Sukhov, who was familiar with performing at the International Tournament for prizes of Olga Rypakova. The Kazakhstani junior was noticeably superior to his much more experienced opponent at the finish line (Odilshokh is 8 years older than Sergei), but Sukhov simply did not have enough distance to finally beat him and win the silver medal. However, we are very glad to have such a “combat” bronze!
The bronze medal in the 400 m hurdles was just as combative. Timur Khudaibergenov lost only 0.1 seconds to the representative of Tajikistan in the fight for the silver award. However, fate then thanked Timur for giving back in the 4-400m relay, which will be discussed later. It will be much more important to inform you that here we have witnessed a new national record! However, not ours, but Iran’s – Mahdi Pirjahan ran the distance in 49.95 seconds, becoming the first Iranian in history to overcome the “barrier” of 50 seconds!
The girls in this discipline had one intrigue: would one of the five Kazakhstani athletes be able to challenge one, but very titled Kristina Pronzhenko from Tajikistan? They couldn’t. Which, however, is not surprising, because Pronzhenko is her country’s record holder in the 400 m, and she has much more experience in hurdles than any of our compatriots, or even all of them combined. Ekaterina Efremova from Altai Athletics-2 won the bronze medal of the Gusman Kosanov Memorial.
Diana Nusupbekova’s victory in the hammer throw turned out to be difficult. Their confrontation with the Indian thrower Juoti became the decoration of the part of the competition brought to the Almaty Arena. Up to the fourth attempt, the Indian representative held the lead with a score of 58.69 m. And only in the fourth approach to the projectile did Diana send him further than Juoti. Even if it’s only 16 cm! No matter how hard our compatriot’s opponent tried, she could not win back these 16 cm, which became a real abyss!
Our 4-400m relay team presented a special surprise. There was absolutely no one from our star trio Litvin-Sokolov-Tarasov here. And many of our people, if not all, had already managed to run in personal sports today, so the freshness was at zero! But with what dedication our tired guys raced along the tracks of the Central Stadium! Venetikidi, who started first, even “dropped” onto the tracks after passing the wand. The rest of our quartet also gave their best, so much so that for a team photo the correspondent had to catch the moment when some athletes found the strength to stand up for two or three seconds at full height, and after clicking the shutter of the camera they bent double again due to lack of strength! Kazakhstan finished second directly in the race, but then the judges recorded some violations in the actions of the winners from the Uzbek national team, and the triumphants were disqualified, and the laurels went to the Kazakhstanis. And, to be honest, hardly anyone would turn the tongue to say that our guys didn’t deserve it!
Running 200 M
Men:
1. Alisher Sadulaev (Turkmenistan) – 21.77
2. Ulugbek Murtazaev (Uzbekistan) – 22.01
3. Yerkinbek Sherov (Kyrgyzstan) – 22.12
…5. Vladislav BOYKO (Kazakhstan) – 22.67
Women (6 participants):
1. Gulsumbi Sharifova (Tajikistan) – 23.35
2. Hamideh Esmael Nezhad (Iran) – 24.83
3. Valentina Meredova (Turkmenistan) – 24.83
…4. Alexandra SYTINA (Kazakhstan) – 25.38
RUNNING 800 M
Men (16 participants):
1. Mohammed Afsal Pulikalakat (India) – 1:49.12
2. Odilshokh Ismatov (Tajikistan) – 1:51.86
3. Sergey SUKHOV (Kazakhstan) – 1:52.06
Girls (3 participants):
1. Kamila Razhabova (Uzbekistan) – 2:11.41
2. Sabina Tolacheva (Uzbekistan) – 2:13.48
3. Natalia ULBRICHT (Kazakhstan) – 2:28.98
RUNNING 5000 M
Men (8 participants):
1. Nursultan Keeshbekov (Kyrgyzstan) – 14:43.68
2. Davit Kharazishvili (Georgia) – 15:10.64
3. Evgeny Fadeev (Uzbekistan) – 15:12.14
…5. Islam AMANGOS (Kazakhstan) – 15:32.27
Girls (3 participants):
1. Mavlyuda Madalieva (Uzbekistan) – 18:15.84
2. Victoria SERGEEVA (Kazakhstan) – 18:35.75
3. Olga BOGOMOLSKAYA (Kazakhstan) – 18:59.96
RELAY RACE 4 TO 400 M
Men (4 teams):
1. KAZAKHSTAN (MUKHITDINOV, VENETIKIDI, KHUDAIBERGENOV, BEKENOV) – 3:14.86
2. Tajikistan – 3:16.47
3. Kyrgyzstan (Vlasenko, Abdrasul, Sadykzhan, Saktanov) – 3:27,22
RUNNING 400 M HURDLES
Men (7 participants):
1. Mahdi Pirjahan (Iran) – 49.95 – Iran’s record
2. Alisher Pulotov (Tajikistan) – 53.00
3. Timur KHUDAIBERGENOV (Kazakhstan) – 53.10
Girls (6 participants):
1. Kristina Pronzhenko (Tajikistan) – 58.90
2. Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (Kazakhstan) – 1:00.58
3. Ekaterina EFREMOVA (Kazakhstan, Altai Athletics-2) – 1:03.92
POLE VAULT
Girls (2 participants):
1. Polina IVANOVA (Kazakhstan) – 3.87
2. Yaroslava VISLOBOKOVA (Kazakhstan) – 3.80
DISCUS THROWING
Men (6 participants):
1. Gagandeep Singh (India) – 52.39
2. Senthil Kumar Mitravarun (India) – 49.54
3. Alexander MAMONTOV (Kazakhstan) – 48.31
Girls (3 participants):
1. Dilon Navjit Kaur (India) – 54.80
2. Maria TELUSHKINA (Kazakhstan) – 48.27
3. Alina VORONTSOVA (Kazakhstan) – 38.54
HAMMER THROWING
Men (4 participants):
1. Reza Moghaddamkormahalle (Iran) – 72.31
2. Mergen Mammadov (Turkmenistan) – 66.29
3. Abdurauf Musoev (Tajikistan) – 58.70
Girls (6 participants):
1. Diana NUSUPBEKOVA (Kazakhstan) – 58.85
2. Jooti (India) – 58.69
3. Anita (India) – 55.38
Source: vksport.kz