It was a thrilling final — thrilling, above all, because of how fiercely each athlete fought to climb as high as possible in the final standings. Qazathletics.kz reports on the battle for medals in the women’s 100 metres at the Kazakhstan Championships.
The women’s 100m final kicked off the evening session of Day One, July 10, at the Kazakhstan Athletics Championships held at the Olympic Training Centre stadium in Almaty Region.
The race started with... a disqualification. Margarita Nazarenko from Akmola Region was ruled out for a false start. She hadn’t competed at the Kazakhstan Cup two weeks earlier, so this was her season debut — and it ended abruptly.
As for the main contenders, the fastest time in the preliminaries came from the most experienced and decorated sprinter in the field — Viktoriya An, now representing Astana. Just six hundredths of a second behind her were Valeria Safonova from Karagandy Region and Arina Misheyeva, who recorded identical times.
In the final, Viktoriya An didn’t have the quickest start. But by the halfway mark, she had taken control of the race and powered through to a confident win. Her toughest challenge came from 21-year-old Valeria Safonova, closely followed by 19-year-old Polina Karel from Pavlodar Region, who managed to reach the podium by edging out 23-year-old Arina Misheyeva by mere hundredths of a second. An even slimmer gap separated Misheyeva from fifth-place finisher Darya Gridasova, 21, from Almaty — just one hundredth of a second.
And one more participant in the final deserves mention — a strong headwind of 3.7 m/s. While it clearly affected the finishing times, it didn’t dampen the fighting spirit of the runners. The energy was fierce — a race to remember!
July 10. Kazakhstan Athletics Championships. Women’s 100 metres.
- Viktoriya An (Astana) – 12.43
- Valeria Safonova (Karagandy Region) – 12.63
- Polina Karel (Pavlodar Region) – 12.76
In the photo: July 10, finish of the women’s 100m.
No. 46 – Viktoriya An (1st place)
No. 88 – Valeria Safonova (2nd place)
No. 44 – Darya Gridasova (5th place)
No. 23 – Anel Shulakova (8th place)
Photo by Konstantin Knyazevich.
