Tetyana powers on in Osaka with Zurich on the horizon
The marathon will return to the programme at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich in August and the women’s race now has its early favourite in Ukrainian Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko.
With a superb run on Sunday, Gamera-Shmyrko regained her title as Osaka champion when she triumphed in 2:24:37 to beat Japan’s Yukiko Akaba, second in 2:26:00, and Karolina Jarzynska, of Poland, who was third in 2:26:31.
Gamera-Shmyrko did not go with the pace as Akaba and Poland’s Karolina Jarzynska swapped the lead as the race passed its halfway mark, with the runners reaching that split in 1:11:30.
But then the Ukrainian began her pursuit of the leaders as she broke away from the pack to set down her run for glory.
With 10km left, this trio was in front and with 5km to go, Gamera-Shmyrko took control to win all alone with a performance that will have her European rivals on the look-out.
It is nearly 13 years since Georgi Ivanov won shot put gold at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Debrecen and 2014 might be the time when he makes his mark again.
On Saturday in Bucharest, Bulgarian Ivanov was a guest at their National Open meeting and he produced the indoor performance of his life.
Ivanov delivered a shot put of 20.81m to break a national indoor record which had been set when he was not even three years old.
Ivanov, now 28, overtook the 20.63m distance that Georgi Todorov has recorded in February 1988.
His eighth place at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow signaled his emergence after a spell at the major events where he could not progress from qualification.
And now Ivanov, who holds the national outdoor record with 21.09m, might just be warming up for something special at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot in March ahead of the summer and the European Athletics Championships in Zurich.
At the last European Athletics Championships in Helsinki in 2012, Irina Gordeeva won high jump bronze behind gold medallist Ruth Beitia from Spain.
But the Russian would have taken a great deal of confidence in the countdown to Sopot as she beat Beitia in Bordeaux on Sunday.
Gordeeva won with 1.94m as Beitia cleared 1.91m at a meeting where Denisa Rosolova, of the Czech Republic, took the 400m in 52.87 and Belarusian Mariya Arzamasava won the 800m in 2:03.16.
In Volgograd, Russia’s Svetlana Denyaeva-Biryukova maintained her superb start to the indoor season when she equalled her world-leading long jump mark of 6.98m, having initially cleared this distance in Moscow two weeks ago.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Today - Czech High Jump Grand Prix (Ostrava).
Tomorrow - Indoor Classic (Vienna).
Wednesday - Moravia High Jump Tour (Vendryne).
Thursday - Belarus Indoor Sports Festival (Brest), Gugl Indoor Meeting (Linz), PSD Bank Meeting (Dusseldorf), Samara Cup (Samara).
Friday - International Springermeeting (Dresden), Pedro’s Cup (Bydgoszcz).
Saturday - Azerbaijan Indoor Cup (Baku), Botnia Games (Mustasaari), Dussmann Indoor Meeting (Luxembourg-Kirchberg), IFAM Indoor Meeting (Gent), International Hallen Meeting (Karlsruhe), Lithuanian Federation’s Cup (Vilnius), Moravia High Jump Tour (Hustopece), Raka Sparet (Stockholm).
Sunday - Almond Blossom Cross Country (Albufeira), Athletics Ireland Open Indoor Games (Athlone), Centraal Beheer Achmea Midwinter Marathon (Apeldoorm), ECCC Cross Country (Albufeira), Mastboscross (Breda), White Cross (Belgrade), Cross Internacional Ciudad de Valladolid (Valladolid).