Just a centimeter shy of silver
Twelve female athletes from ten countries competed in the final of the world championship. Olga Rypakova’s performance could be described as a rollercoaster. In the competition protocol, her position changed drastically from one attempt to another. However, her character, will to win, and self-belief allowed our “prima” to leave the Chinese capital with a medal around her neck. In the first attempt, many leaders of the world season achieved only symbolic results. For instance, the Russian athlete Koneva, who has a result over 15m this season, showed only 14.01m, while Ibarguen from Colombia did not even reach the 14.5m mark. Rypakova was no exception, recording 14.23m, which placed her in an intermediate third place. Unexpectedly, Gabriela Petrova from Bulgaria took the lead with a jump of 14.52m. As subsequent events showed, this was far from the limit. The events in the next two attempts became truly intense. Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko “flew” to 14.78m, setting an Israeli record, while Ibarguen showed who the boss was in the sector with a result of 14.8m, which already guaranteed her the gold medal. Rypakova, meanwhile, made two consecutive fouls and barely qualified for the final three jumps, sitting in seventh place in the standings. By this point, even Kimberly Williams from Jamaica and Kristin Gierisch from Germany had managed to overtake our athlete. There was a genuine fear for the final result. But after three jumps, it was as if someone had pressed the gas pedal in Olga’s mind. In her very next jump, she recorded 14.59m! For the first time this season, Rypakova managed to overcome the psychologically important 14.5m barrier. From there, things only got better, even despite a foul in her fifth jump. However, the fear did not subside, as Petrova was serious about creating a sensation and winning a medal, “leaping” to 14.66m in her fifth jump! The Bulgarian athlete had never jumped that far in her entire career! And it was during this “benefit performance” by Petrova that Olga Rypakova had to step up. Only character remained to be relied upon. And it did not fail, coupled with a sense of freedom. In her very last jump, the Olympic Champion achieved the necessary result – 14.77m! The result was both good, as it allowed her to overtake Petrova and take third place, and bittersweet, as it was only 1 cm shorter than the result of the silver medalist, Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko. But a medal is a medal, and it is another reason to be proud of and admire our prima, for to win this award, she had to overcome a great deal. Perhaps even too much. Source: vksport.kz
Open Doors Da
On August 29, 2015, the Olga Rypakova Athletics Center will host an “Open Doors Day” event dedicated to “Sports Day” and the “Constitution Day of the Republic of Kazakhstan.” The goal of this event is to fulfill the mandate of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Mangilik El 2050” regarding the involvement of 30% of the population of the Republic of Kazakhstan in sports. Popularization of athletics in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk, involvement of children and adolescents in athletics sections, and promotion of a healthy lifestyle. In this regard, we invite all physical education teachers and children to take an active part.