July 22, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 18, 1429

MOSCOW, July 21: World and Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva and men’s Olympic 800 metres champion Yuri Borzakovsky will lead a 109-strong Russian athletics team at next month’s Beijing Olympics.

The Russian athletics federation picked 49 men and 60 women for the Aug 8-24 Games following the national championships which concluded in Kazan at the weekend.

Isinbayeva, 26, who set her 22nd world record by vaulting 5.03 metres at Rome’s Golden Gala last week, was one of the few athletes who was assured of a place on the squad without having to qualify in Kazan.

Olympic high jump champion Yelena Slesarenko and Tatyana Lebedeva, 2004 Olympic gold medallist in the long jump, also made the team in their respective events.

Lebedeva will also compete in the triple jump in Beijing. She won back-to-back world titles in 2001 and 2003 and the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in that event.

But 2004 Olympic gold medallist in the women’s hammer, Olga Kuzenkova, will not defend her title in Beijing after coming in fifth in Kazan.

Former Olympic and world champion Irina Privalova also failed in her latest comeback attempt to qualify for her fourth Olympics after finishing seventh in the 200 metres final and missing the final in the 100.

Privalova has not competed at the Olympics since winning gold in the 400 metres hurdles at the 2000 Sydney Games but has chosen to go back to her first love, the shorter distances.

The mother of three, who turns 40 in November, was not ready to retire, however.

“I’m not planning to retire just yet,” she said. “I’ll start training soon again. Who knows, I might have another child, then will try to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.”—Reuters