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Antonina Krivoshapka from Russia won the 400m Russian tittle on Friday. The day before she ran 49.29 in her semifinal, improving her PB around a second, running the second best time ever for a Russian, becoming the woman of any nationality who has dipped the most under 50 for the first time in her career over the last 20 years, and only 0.06 over Sanya Richard's World leading time.
From one day to another, what apparently was an extremely favourable scenario for the dominant Richards in Berlin, changed. But to lose to a younger girl who came out from nowhere? Is that possible? To defeat the best IAAF 400m runner for the last four years? Perhaps not. But how many athletes who own 36 top times in their event , who are among the 10 best ever, who have dominated their event four years but have never won a major title exist?
SR is much more expierenced, undoubtedly. To Krivoshapka this is the first season she runs under 50 and she had run all the three championships finals she won this year not as well as her semis or heats, not to count historically Russians usually run slower at global titles than at their champs.
However, SR has never won a global title so far or season bested at them. Aware of her psychological fragility, she even accepted recently that she choked at the Beijing OG final last year, when she dramatically lost gold in the last meters.
Richards or Krivoshapka?
From one day to another, what apparently was an extremely favourable scenario for the dominant Richards in Berlin, changed. But to lose to a younger girl who came out from nowhere? Is that possible? To defeat the best IAAF 400m runner for the last four years? Perhaps not. But how many athletes who own 36 top times in their event , who are among the 10 best ever, who have dominated their event four years but have never won a major title exist?
SR is much more expierenced, undoubtedly. To Krivoshapka this is the first season she runs under 50 and she had run all the three championships finals she won this year not as well as her semis or heats, not to count historically Russians usually run slower at global titles than at their champs.
However, SR has never won a global title so far or season bested at them. Aware of her psychological fragility, she even accepted recently that she choked at the Beijing OG final last year, when she dramatically lost gold in the last meters.
Richards or Krivoshapka?
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