Australia potentially getting another Russian import

[Andy_C]

AUSTRALIA is set to import another Russian pole vaulter.

Sergey Kucheryanu, a 5.81m vaulter, has told the Russian Athletics Federation he wants to join Olympic champion Steve Hooker's training group in Perth.

Athletics Australia has made a formal request to the International Association of Athletics Federations and its Russian counterparts about starting the process to have Kucheryanu become an Australia citizen in time for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The 24-year-old is regarded as a promising up-and-coming vaulter on the world scene and would be a perfect back-up to Hooker, who has dominated the event over the past two years.

"He's pretty good and could potentially win a medal in London," an AA official said yesterday.

Australia has a wonderful track record when it comes to importing pole vaulters from other countries, with Tatiana Grigorieva and Dmitri Markov both winning medals at major championships representing the green-and-gold.

Pin-up girl Grigorieva migrated to Australia with then husband Viktor Chistiakov in 1997 and earned national acclaim when she won the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She also won Commonwealth Games gold in 2002.
Chistiakov was also an elite pole vaulter and finished fifth at the Sydney Olympics.
Markov, who left Belarus for Australia in 1999, won the world championships in 2001 with a record leap of 6.05m which was the Australian record until Hooker went 1cm higher last year.
He played an integral role in bringing Hooker through the ranks, but was forced to retire in 2007 because of injury.

Hooker's coach, Alex Parnov, is good friends with Kucheryanu's father. They are hopeful the Russian Federation does not fight the transfer.sGHooker will tomorrow attempt to pocket a $100,000 bonus which is on offer at the Commonwealth Games trials in Perth if he can break the great Sergey Bubka's world record of 6.14m.

Perfect conditions are predicted at the new Western Australian Athletics Stadium but the only athlete to hold Olympic, world, Commonwealth and indoor titles simultaneously is hopeful, rather than being confident, about claiming the record.

"I think one day I will do it but it's a big ask to do it on a given day," Hooker said. "There's a bit of an incentive but that doesn't mean I am more likely to do it. To say that I'm going to jump the world record is a bit of a stretch."




* By SCOTT GULLAN
* From: The Sunday Times
* April 17, 2010 7:00PM


http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/russia ... 5854901187

[altius]

I know you should never spoil a good story with the facts - but it is worth pointing out yet again that Tatiana had never vaulted before she came to Adelaide in late dec 1996 - she was a 400 hurdler!