Alesia Turava emulates her sister as Belarus rule

By John Bagratuni Aug 12, 2006, 16:10 GMT

Gothenburg, Sweden - Alesia Turava emulated her sister Ryta on a grand Saturday for Belarus with three titles at the European athletics championships.

Three days after Ryta Turava won the 20km walk, Alesia triumphed in the inaugural women's 3,000 metres steeplechase. Earlier in the session, compatriots Natallia Koronenko and Ivan Tikhon won the women's shot put and men's hammer throw, respectively.

Ulrike Maisch of Germany, meanwhile, came out of nowhere to win the women's marathon, ending a southern European monopoly on the classic race.

Finals later Saturday were the men's 110m hurdles, discus and triple jump, plus the woman's 5,000m, and pole vault.

Ryta Turava said after her walk win that Alesia must now match her achievement, and the former world record holder duly delivered - running away from her rivals on the last backstraight to win in 9 minutes 26.05 seconds.

Tatyana Petrova of Russia was second in 9:28:05 and Poland's Wioletta Janowska placed third in 9:31.62 minutes.

The Turova's account for half of Belarus' four titles so far in Gothenburg and the others also came Saturday.

World indoor champion Koronenko won the women's shot put with 19.43m in a tight battle with compatriot world outdoor champion Nadezhda Ostapchuk, who was the just 1cm off on 19.42m. Petra Lammert of Germany got third place with 19.17m.

The two-time world champion Ivan Tikhon took the hammer title with 81.11m from Finland's Olli-Pekka Karjalainen (80.84m) and Vadim Devyatovski (80.76m).

The unheralded Maisch, 29, caught up with then leading Russian Irina Permitina at the 40-kilometres mark and triumphed in 2 hours 30 minutes 1 seconds for the 42.195km. She improved her personal best by 1:20 minutes on a cool and rainy afternoon.

Olivera Jevtic came second in 2:30:27 for Serbia's first medal after the recent split with Montenegro. Permitina, who had taken the lead after 33km and was 41 seconds ahead of Maisch at 35km, faded to third in 2:30:53 in total exhaustion.

'I am so surprised. I never dreamt this could happen,' said the elated Maisch. 'When I was first at 40km I couldn't believe it. And on the last lap in the stadium I had tears in my eyes and was about to cry.'

Permitina said: 'It was tough, not because of the rain, but the wind. I had the biggest crisis some three kilometres before the end when I began to slow down and the others came.'

Until Saturday, the women's Euro-marathon had only seen winners from the southern European countries of Portugal (Rosa Mota three times, Manuela Machado twice) and Italy (Maria Guida).

Italian Bruna Genovese, along with Jevtic the pre-race favourite in the absence of pregnant world champion and world record holder Paula Radcliffe of Britain, lost contact with the leaders after 30km and had to settle for fifth place in 2:31:15.