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| Yuriy Borzakovskiy Born:
12 April 1981 in Zhukovskiy The talent of the young Russian middle distance runner broke onto the international scene on 17 July 1998, when Yuriy, after winning silver in the 1500m behind Ethiopia’s Tadesse, triumphed in the 800m at the World Youth Games with a time of 1:47.71 (one of the best under-18 times ever). In the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, with the final kick that has become his devastating tactical weapon, Borzakovskiy utterly dominated the Saudi athlete Yusif and South African William Mandla Nkosi, one of the stars of the 1999 World Youth Championships in Bydgoszcz. In the World Junior Championships in Annecy, in 1998, Yuriy only competed in the 4x400m relay (he has a pb for the one lap race of 47.43) and Russia was eliminated in the heats. 1999 was his year, though. In the European Cup Super League, his federation’s selectors decide to give him a chance, and they did the right thing: in June, in Paris, he beat all comers in the 800, with an astonishing closing kick. Yuriy has no rivals in his category: in August, he goes on to dominate the European Junior Championships in Riga in the two lap race. By now, his exploits last winter don’t surprise anyone any more;: he becomes one of the indoor season’s major personalities with the World Junior Record over 800m indoors (1:44.53 in Dortmund on 30 January) and his success in the Europeans in March in Ghent. After a low-key debut outdoors in the 400m at the Znamenskiy Memorial (46.14 in the minor series), he has participated in various Grand Prix meets and shown his ability to handle races led by pacemakers: managing in the process to snatch two ancient European Junior records from Andreas Busse: 1:44.63 in Lausanne in the 800m (previously 1:45.45 set in 1978) and 2:17.40 in Nice over 1000m (previously 2:12.31 set in ’77). During the recent Russian Championships in Tula, Borzakovskiy set his personal best in the 400m with 45.84, taking second place behind the veteran Golovastov. |
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