Shalin jumps into the spotlight

Russia's Pavel Shalin produced a winning leap of 8.26m (+2.5mps) in the men's Long Jump helping his team take the overall title at the SPAR European Team Championships in Bergen last weekend.

Russia’s Pavel Shalin has made a startling impact on the Long Jump in just a few weeks, not least because his victory at the 2010 SPAR European Team Championships last weekend also helped his country to become the champions of Europe.

Before the start of this month, few athletics fans outside of Russia would have known his name but now a lot more know across Europe know who he is, and he will go to the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona next month as a serious medal contender.

Having a previous best of 7.39m indoors to his name, this winter the 22-year-old Shalin sailed out to 7.92m but he really made people sit up when he broke the eight-metre barrier in emphatic fashion and  jumped 8.25m at the Moscow Championships on June 6.

He then proved that his effort in Moscow was no fluke, took his form from in front of a few hundred spectators into the international arena, and produced a winning leap of 8.26m in Bergen on Saturday, albeit with a following win of 2.5mps which rendered it illegal for any record purposes.

Curiously, Shalin - who was born in Lipetsk but who is now based in Moscow and in the same training squad as the Russian female Long Jump prodigy Darya Klishina - has only been taking the event seriously since the start of the year.

The SPAR European Team Championships in Bergen was also only his second competition overseas after his trip last summer to the 2009 European Athletics Under 23 Championships last summer.

Before the start of 2010, Shalin had been orientated towards the Triple Jump, the event in which he finished fifth in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, but this winter he had grown exasperated at his own lack of progress.

“The training for the Triple Jump and Long Jump is essentially the same but the Triple Jump requires more technical discipline and I just enjoyed the sensation of flying through the air more,” said Shalin, explaining his decision.

By his own admission, the Russian selectors took a gamble taking him to Bergen after just one good domestic competition.

“I hadn’t even jumped in any commercial competitions but I was hoping to jump over eight metres in Bergen so it turned out perfectly. It was wind-assisted but still an improvement and this was despite some very bad technique.

“The problem I had in Bergen was that it was a small pit. When I was in the air, I was worried as the edge of the pit to be coming closer and closer.

“There was pressure on me because the team was relying on me to bring them good points. A lot of people in other events had problems with the wind, and it’s true it was circling, but when I was jumping the temperature was about 15 degrees and that was perfect,” he added.

He was also happy to admit, with the benefit of 12 points having been won, that his nerves were jangling beforehand.

“Of course, I was worried. It was my first important senior competition. I wanted to help the honour of the men’s side of the team as we have such a strong women’s squad. The joke was going around that it we lost again after last year that it would be the fault of the men. At least I won, and another male jumper did as well (high jumper Alexandr Shustov),” added Shalin with a smile.

Shalin currently lies second on the European Long Jump rankings this year, behind Germany’s Christian Reif who has jumped 8.27m, but he now knows that his rival is beatable after he could only finish sixth in Bergen.

“Ultimately, I’m now thinking about Leonid Voloshin’s Russian record of 8.46m. It has been there since 1988 and that’s a long time but for the moment I’m just thinking about (the European Athletics Championships in) Barcelona.”

By coincidence, Voloshin went in the other direction to Shalin and, after starting out as a long jumper, switched to the Triple Jump and won the 1990 European Athletics Championships gold medal at that discipline, and as well as the 1992 and 1994 European Indoor titles.

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