Posted: May 4, 2006

Athletics: Isinbayeva, Lebedeva Top List Of Five Pre-Selected To Russian Squad For European Championships

By Bob Ramsak
© 2006 TRACK PROFILE Report, all rights reserved

World and Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva and Tatyana Lebedeva, the world record holder indoors in the triple jump, are among five athletes pre-selected for August's European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, Valeriy Kulichenko, the chief trainer for the Russian Athletics Federation announced.

A pair of high jumpers, Olympic and world indoor champion Yelena Slesarenko and reigning continental champion Yaroslav Rybakov were also given automatic entry to the squad, along with Lyudmila Petrova, who recently set a Russian national record of 2:21:29 in the marathon win her runner-up finish at the Flora London Marathon last month.

“We have received four written requests from the first four athletes to absolve them from the national selection for the European Athletics Championships,” Kulichenko said. “Taking into account all the arguments, we decided to comply with the requests."

Team selection will continue at the national championships in Tula, June 11-15, with the winners gaining automatic entry. Two additional entries per event will be selected after the Znamenskiy Memorial competition on June 24 and the European Cup on June 28-29.

Lebedeva, who is also the reigning Olympic champion in the long jump, has yet to determine if she will seek a double in Gothenburg.

One athlete not expected to compete in Gothenburg is Olympic 800 meter champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy. After finishing third at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow in March, Borzakovskiy indicated that the European Championships were not on his schedule this summer.

The 19th edition of the championships will take place from August 7-13.

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