A Unique Event (16.56m)

21.01.1966 (Padomju Jaunatne)

Three stages of the jumping marathon for Bļizņecovs, a record and a Minister

Council Award Renāte starts as Hari and finishes first One Mile Puzzle Solved

Jānis Jakubovs * Engineering mathematics and athlete experience

When talking about international track and field competitions, the word can be used frequently, but without getting tired of it "first". And not only because in each discipline one athlete is always first (he can also be called the winner or champion).

The first international track and field competitions in Riga's first sports arena. For the first time, the Latvian SSR Council of Ministers' traveling awards are won. For the first time, French and Swedish track and field athletes compete in Soviet Latvia (athletes from Czechoslovakia, Finland and the GDR had already been seen at the "Daugava" stadium). For the first time in Riga, the bar for pole vaulters is set at a height of five meters. For the first time, one mile is run here. Renāte Lāce always finishes first. The republic's first indoor record holder is Artūrs Sliede in the shot put,  and the Soviet Union's record holder is Gennady Bļizņecov in the kart jump. The first to break the fiberglass barrier was Azerbaijani Koržeev (fortunately, also the last).

This could go on for a long time. Even longer than the pole vaulters, who started first and finished last, competed. While they broke the bars and the judges placed new ones higher and higher on the bars, while the national champion Gennady Biznetsov checked the run and Igor Feld coolly made the jumps, while the French record holder Herve D'Ankos moved the bars and the third best Finnish jumper Auvo Pehkoranta folded his card, one could watch the events unfolding on the track, in the shot put and triple jump sectors.

It has long been common that Latvian sprinters do not show anything outstanding. It seems that the arena will make these views reevaluate. Lev Pavlovskis improved our athletes' record in the 50 m distance in the first race indoors for 5.8 seconds. Although several renowned runners from Moscow and Azerbaijan competed, Lev's record remained unbeaten. It was repeated by Viktor Kasatkin, who won the final race. Pavlovskis finished second. Could this be the first swallow of the men's sprint for the spring?

How many times during big competitions have we sighed: "Oh, if Renāte hadn't sat down at the start! Well, if the distance had been at least ten meters longer! Then the champion title wouldn't have slipped out of our hands." It seems that the short track of the arena has benefited Renāte Lāce the most. You can't make up for lost time in 50 meters. And Renāte didn't have to make up for anything. She ran the distance as easily as she did during the Riga Cup competition in the stadium, but she was ahead of everyone from the first step. Even Ludmila Samotjosova and Lilita Zāģere. In the semi-finals, Renāte's start was so lightning-fast that for a moment there were even doubts whether it was too early. I asked the Moscow specialists if they hadn't spotted some "heresy".

— Amazing! Only Boris Tokarev and Armin Hari were able to start the race so quickly. 

Frenchman Maurice Liro was considered the undisputed favorite in the one-mile race. Both after the results achieved earlier, and after a light and "flirty" step. For almost all ten laps, he freely and without visible coercion held the lead of the race. Kievite Yevgeny Abonins and Rigaite Jānis Jakubovs, although they looked heavy in comparison, persistently kept up. Sometimes they tried to run past. Then the Frenchman looked to the side, "gave in the gas" and - "swimmed away". When the last lap began, the siren's howl merged with the roar of the spectators. On the finish line, Abonins passed Maurice on one side, Yakubov on the other. Hard, with gritted teeth, but he went. This is what perseverance does! Jānis Jakubovs wins by a hair's breadth, no, by a hair's breadth.

But Liro? Liro, who didn't lose to the Soviet runners in any race last year and just won in Tallinn, stops in confusion right after the finish line. He didn't hear the siren that announced the end of the last lap. He forgot to look at the light board. It happens.

In the women's 500 m race, the fastest runner was G. Morockina from Kiev. Sarmīte Stūla from Riga, who fought really commendably, were only a few meters behind. National team runners J. Slepova and V. Muhanova ran longer.

Soviet Union champion Nikolai Karasev threw the shot without any problems and much further than the others - 18.32 m. Czech strongman Jaroslav Šmid improved his recent Tallinn performance to 17.50 m. Artūrs Sliede (16.56 m) was only one centimeter behind the Finnish Jarmo Kunnase, achieving a new personal and republican (indoor) record .

The triple jump was led by Adil Dementyev of Azerbaijan and Klaus Neimanis of the GDR. Nikolajs Preobrazhenskys only managed to squeeze between them with the last jump (15.44 m), winning second place.

By that time, only two pole vaulters and a thousand times more spectators remained in the arena. The bar is placed at a height of five meters. Just like in the Tashkent championship, these two are Igor Feld from Leningrad and Gennady Bliznetsov, a graduate from Kharkov. The spectators are waiting for the end of the last, third act of the pole vault competition.

In the first act, which began with a four-meter height, the main roles were performed by Riga residents Eduards Liepiņš (4.10 m), Vladimirs Merkulovs and Zigmunds Zohovskis (both 4.20 m). Together with them, Azerbaijani jumper V. Koržeevs also left the stage after breaking his leg.

In the second act, without any particular pathos, having jumped only 4.50 m, the Swedish ex-record holder Hans Lagerqvist passed through the audience. The final monologue of the Frenchman Herve D'Ancos was more dramatic. The winner of the Tallinn competition jumped a 4.70 m high bar on his third attempt. While the jumper was somersaulting on a pile of foam rubber, while the audience applauded, the bar treacherously tilted towards the jumper. It doesn't count. How is that? The bar stayed up! That's how it is. If the heights are lower, the bar, falling towards the bar, knocks it over, and there is no doubt about an unsuccessful jump. This time the bar was shorter and did not reach the bar. The national record holder Gennady Biznetsov also got nervous in the second act. He cleared 4.70 m only on the last attempt. However, Igors Felds cold-bloodedly skipped the jumps. Finn Auvo Pehkoranta jumped 4.70 m and came in third place.

4.90 m — higher than the national indoor record, which is only 4.88 m, Bliznetsov touches the bar. It bounces, but does not fall. Record! Igors Felds flies much higher, but only with the second jump. Five meters remained unjumped. The first traveling award was presented to Gennady Bliznetsov by Miervaldis Ramāns, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR. 

All the first-time events or, as the chairman of the athletics federation Pāvils Ducmanis said, the "unique event" is based on the sports arena, which becomes not only a place for athletes to work, but also a place for celebrations. The best reviews were heard. From Estonians and Lithuanians, for whom the arena is no novelty: warm, cozy, pleasant. From G. Bļizņecov; the landing pit (actually a pile) is softer than a bed. From sprinters and triple jumpers: a fast track, carries you like through the air. From photographers: excellent lighting. Only middle-distance runners complained about the sharp turns. They couldn't run at maximum speed. Turning the ends of their legs. If the runways were arranged obliquely in the turns like in Leningrad, then they could ride without any worries. It was also intended to be built in Riga, but our chief engineer of sports facilities A. Bulgakovs, with formulas in hand, proved that it was unnecessary - centrifugal forces were negligible. At that time, mathematics turned out to be stronger than the experience of athletes who had experienced these forces firsthand.

E. KEHRIS

Best results of the first day.

Women 50 m: R. Lace — 6.4; L. Samotyosova (KPFSR) — 64; L. Alfeyeva (Moscow) — 6.6.

500 m: G. Marochkina (Ukraine) — 1.19.4; S. Sfula — 1.19,9; J. Slepova (Moscow) — 1.20,8.

Men. S0 m: V. Kasatkin (Azerbaijan) — 5.8; L. Pavlovsky — 5.9 (5.8); A. Makarov

(Moscow) — 6.1 (6.0). 600 m: A. Lipsheev (Ukraine) — 1.24.7; N. Maytsev (Ukraine) — 1.25.4;

A. Sabalin (Ukraine) — 1.26.1. 1 mile: J. Yakubov — 4.20.2; J. Abonin (Ukraine) — 4.20.2;

M. Liro (France) — 4.20.6. Triple jump: A. Demeniev (Azerbaijan) — 15.51; N. Preobra

Men's - 15.44; K. Neimanis (GDR) - 15.40. Pole vault: G. Biznetsovs (Ukraine) - 4.90;

I. Feld (Leningrad) — 4.90; A. Pehkoranfa (Finland) — 4.70, E. D'Ancos (France) — 4.60;

H. Lagerqvist (Sweden) — 4.50 m. Shot put: N. Karasev (Moscow) — 18.32; J. Schmid (Czechoslovakia) — 17.50; M. Okroshidze (Georgia) — 17.16; J. Kunnas (Finland) — 16.57, A. Sliede — 16.56 .