Russia's Shobukhova to return to the track at the Znamensky Memorial meeting

London Marathon winner Liliya Shobukhova of Russia is expected to take part in the Znamensky Memorial meeting in Zhukovskiy, Russia, on 26 June.

A special women's 10000m will be held at the Znamensky Memorial meeting in Zhukovskiy on 26 June, an IAAF World Challenge meeting, and it will have extra interest as the Russian athletics federation have announced that it will be their qualifying race for this year's European Athletics Championships.

The 2010 London Marathon winner Liliya Shobukhova, the fastest Marathon runner in the world this year after running 2:22:00 in the British capital on April 25, is expected to take part in the meeting on the outskirts of Moscow, which will be her first track race of the year.

Shobukhova said after her London triumph that she wants to bid for a gold medal over 10000m in Barcelona.

Her performance over the classic distance in London lead to her being voted as the European Athlete of the Month for April.

Shobukhova can boast of very good track credentials. She is the European record holder over 5000m with 14:23.75 and has a 10000m best of 30:29.36, set last year when winning at the Russian Championships.

Russia's reigning European 10000m champion Inga Abitova, who finished just 19 seconds behind Shobukhova in London, is also expected to be in the race, along with former SPAR European Cross Country Championships medallist Mariya Konovalova.

However, Russia will only send a men's team to the 2010 European Cup 10000m which will be staged in the French city of Marseille this Saturday.

The well-known Rybakov twins, Yevgeniy and Anatoliy, form part of the team along with Sergey Ivanov, Stepan Kiselev and Aleksey Reunkov.

Anatoliy was the 2007 European Athletics Under 23 Championships 10,000m gold medallist and, now 25, is going to Marseille looking to improve on his personal best of 28:06.54.

Yevgeniy preceded his brother as the European Under 23 champion, winning in 2005, and has the slightly faster personal best of 28:05.75. He finished sixth, three places in front of Anatoliy at the 2009 European Cup 10000m.