After winning the 1,500m final at the World Indoor Championships with a world record of 3:57.71 in Valencia, Spain on Sunday, Yelena Soboleva explained that she had not thought about the record during the race. “I was only aiming for gold, not for the record,” the 25 year-old Russian explained to reporters.
The world record came as a sort of bonus, but it was not her first one -Soboleva had broken the 1,500m indoor record already twice before. Two years ago she had improved the mark of Regina Jacobs (USA/3:59.98) to 3:58.28 in Moscow. This year she had again improved at the Russian Championships to 3:58.05.
Still, before Valencia Soboleva had never won a major championship. Two years ago she was the favorite at World Indoors in Moscow, but was beaten by her countrywoman Yuliya Chizhenko. After this silver medal it got worse in the European final in Gothenburg. In Sweden, she could only finish fourth, even after improving her outdoor best to 3:56.43. A year ago, it was a similar story, although she at least won a silver medal in Osaka. Soboleva had entered the event leading the world list with 3:57.30, which remained the fastest time of the year, but she couldn’t cope in the end of the race when Bahrain’s Maryam Jamal stormed past her to take the gold.
So finally Soboleva has broken the deadlock, and she could not have done so in a more impressive way. “After Osaka I worked a lot to improve my speed on the final 500 meters of the race,” she said. There were two reasons why she and Yulia Fomenko, who won the silver medal with a personal best of 3:59.41, had agreed before the start to make this a fast race. “I don’t like running in packed fields. I need space to run well,” Soboleva explained. The second reason was the more important one: “Making the race fast gave me the best chance of winning.”
But Soboleva admitted that she had not been too confident after her world record in Moscow. “I felt tired after the championships in Moscow,” she said. A day before her world record, Soboleva had additionally broken the Russian 800m record with 1:56.49, which makes her the fourth fastest ever indoors at the distance. After the championships her coach Matvey Telyatnikov advised her to take a ten-day break. “The time I had to prepare for Valencia seemed to be a bit too short, but my coach was right. He said that I would be okay if I run fast,” Soboleva explained.
Living in Moscow but originally from nearby Bryansk, where she studied at the Institute of Technology, Soboleva is supported by the Russian sports system plus her club. With the funds she gets she is able to fully concentrate on her running.
“I have to thank Yulia for helping with the pace today. If we would not have done it this way I don’t know if it would have been possible to win,” Soboleva said. “But I really had no idea about the world record. The problem was that I did not see the time at the 1,000-meter mark. So I could not think about breaking the record. I only realized that Yulia was running very fast and that I have to hold on to her.”
Asked if she would see herself as the favorite at the Olympics, Soboleva answered: “That is difficult to say right now. First of all I will have to qualify for Beijing. Taking into account the strength of the Russian middle distance runners, that is not that easy. Our championships are almost as tough as Olympic Games. But I don’t want to lose against another Russian.”
Regarding a possible start at the 800m at a major championship, Soboleva said that she will run the shorter distance at championships some time in future. “I like running the 800 meters, but it is different than the 1,500 meters. In the 800 you have to really run the whole way.”
Of course, that is just what she did in Valencia on Sunday.
