On March 20, the Ukrainian winter walking championship took place in Lutsk, on Volya Avenue.
Everything happened: Olympic standards, national records and real sports drama and excitement accompanied the competition.
20km women
Anna Shevchuk was one of those who fought not only for the highest possible place in the Ukrainian championship, but also for the Olympic standard. Last fall, senior coach of the national walking team Denis Tobias said that Anna is in excellent shape and the training she leads, and the results she shows, show that she has every chance to join the company of Ukrainian women, who they will fight for a place on the Olympic team.
We will recall that before the winter championship of Ukrainian standards there were five Ukrainians: Maria Saharuk (1:28:47), Elena Sobchuk (1:29:12), Lyudmila Olyanovskaya (1:29:13), Inna Kashina (1: 29:30) and Nadezhda Borovskaya (1:29:57).
All of them, with the exception of Inna Kashina, who is recovering from the birth of her daughter and intends to return to the competitions of the summer championship of Ukraine, started in Lutsk.
Olyanovska, Sobchuk, Saharuk, Borovska and Shevchuk remained in a small group for a long time.
Maria Saharuk was the first to force the pace, but she is her but she was penalized and lost two minutes in the Penalty Area.
Nadiya Borovska began to lag behind her rivals, while Hanna Shevchuk, on the other hand, only increased her pace and, having become the leader, did not give up this position to anyone. And to the gold of the Ukrainian championship he added the Olympic standard.
Victory to Anna Shevchuk (Ivano-Frankivsk region, coaches: Shevchuk MM, Khanenkiv MB) - 1:29:09
Second place to Lyudmyla Olyanovska (Kiev region, coach: Solomin AV, Kuzmuk RM) - 1:29:53
Third place to Olena Sobchuk (Volyn region, coaches: Yalovik VT, Yalovik AV, Mazur EI) - 1:30:01
Fourth place to Nadiya Borovska (Volyn region, coaches: Kalytka MF, Kalytka SV) - 1:30:41
Fifth place to Maria Saharuk (Volyn region, coaches: Borisyuk VI, Mazur EI) - 1:31:08
20km men
The fight in the men's 20km was no less dramatic.
Viktor Shumik and Nazar Kovalenko have been repeatedly selected for Olympic standards, but have not yet been able to meet them.
Shumik rushed to the front of the race on the home course, leaving behind a group of chasers of Ivan Losev, Eduard Zabuzhenko and Nazar Kovalenko, but his thirst for victory played a trick on him. He too was sanctioned by the judges who saw in his walk a violation of the rules (flight phase) and after three red cards they stopped him for two minutes in the penalty area.
Kovalenko took advantage of it, became the leader, but suffered the same fate for violating the same rule.
In the end, Eduard Zabuzhenko and Ivan Losev remained fighting for the victory. Both had competed in the Turkish Open on March 6. That day, only the Turk Salih Korkmaz had been faster than the Ukrainians. Eduard Zabuzhenko had finished second and Ivan Losev in Antalya also obtained the Olympic standard by finishing third.
In Lutsk, Anatoliy Solomin's athlete, Eduard Zabuzhenko won gold.
Victory to Eduard Zabuzhenko (Kiev region, coaches: Solomin AV, Leshchenko OO, Kuzmuk RM) - 1:23:14
Second place to Ivan Losev (Kiev region, coaches: Kovalenko A.Yu., Mazur EI) - 1: 24.05
Third place to Nazar Kovalenko (Kiev region, coaches: Kovalenko A.Yu., Martynov SV) - 1:24:54
Fourth place to Georgy Sheiko (Kazakhstan) - 1:25:22
When placed in Shumik Victor (Volyn region, coaches: Yalovyk AV, Yalovyk VT, Mazur EI) - 1:26:11
35km women
Khrystyna Yudkina was the clear favorite among women. But not everything happened as expected.
During the warm-up, she Yudkina felt a discomfort in the muscles of the back of the thigh and she together with the coach and the doctors decided not to participate in the competition.
After Lyudmila Shelest also abandoned the distance, Tamara Gavrilyuk became the only candidate for victory.
Victory to Tamara Gavrilyuk (Zhytomyr region, coaches: Chernov AI, Chernov VI) - 2:57:26
Second place to Yana Farina (Volyn region, coaches Borysyuk IB, Borysyuk OS) - 3:07:26 (Ukrainian U23 record)
Third place to Oksana Kulagina (Kiev region, coaches: Solomin AV, Kuzmuk RV) - 3:16:31
35 km men
Igor Glavan and Ivan Banzeruk are immediately leading the race.
Gradually, Glavan came forward, but the gap was too big, and even in Lutsk the same situation as in October in Ivano-Frankivsk was repeated. Banzeruk, who until recently did not know what disqualification was, was again fouled by the judges and stopped in the penalty area. Later he decided not to continue the competition.
At this point it seemed that Igor Glavan's victory was certain, but the physical problems were making themselves felt.
Igor Glavan slowed down several times and was eventually overtaken by Anton Radko and Dmytro Sobchuk.
Glavan was later overtaken and overtaken by Andriy Marchuk, but when it seemed that Ihor was in perennial crisis and quit, he still continued the competition and finished third.
Victory to Anton Radko (Sumy region, coaches: Shelest OP, Krivokhizha MM, Krivokhizha TV) - 2:36:21
Second place to Dmytro Sobchuk (Volyn region, coaches: Kalytka MF, Mazur EI) - 2:37:01
Third place to Igor Glavan (Sumy region, coaches: Miroshnichenko SA, Kuzmuk RM) - 2:41:34
Fourth place to Andriy Marchuk (Volyn region, coaches: Yalovyk AV, Yalovyk VT) - 2:42:02
(Foto di Katerina Rudyuk - UKR)