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At the beginning of the last winter season, the SS “Arkādija” under the leadership of its director Jurgis Grant decided to hold the Riga Cup indoors and bring together some good local and Lithuanian track and field athletes. This year the number of participants had already grown in terms of both the number and the strength of the composition. Yesterday, representatives of seven countries from three continents – Europe (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Germany), Asia (Singapore) and South America (Brazil) – competed at the Riga Cups to loud ovations from the audience indoors. Organizers had arranged for cash prizes for the top three in six Cup disciplines – 60m and long jump for men and women as well as separate pole vault for men and 60m/B for women.
After the successful year 2023 of Marek Arent’s student Valters Kreiša. In the 2018 season, in which he took 4th place at the U23 European Championships, won the Latvian Indoor and Stadium Championships and became the Latvian U23 record holder with 5.65 m, the organizers included pole vault in the competition program this year and managed to create a cup discipline for men too. The clear favorite Kreis also confirmed the expectations placed on him and achieved a new personal indoor record and the highest result of this competition with a result of 5.60 m, which corresponds to 1157 World Athletics points, thus making it into the top 20 World season. The Arcadian was also close to clearing the bar placed at a height of 5.71 m, which would have been a new indoor record, a personal record and a centimeter better than the coach’s best result.
Another top 20 world ranking result was achieved in the highly anticipated men’s 60m sprint, which saw strong competition between the leading Latvian sprinters and the fast Lithuanians. In the final, he improved his personal record by 0.15 seconds (!) and achieved 6.64 seconds (1130 WA points), which is one hundredth faster than the Latvian record set by Yuri Silov and 0.02 seconds slower than the Lithuanian record . He became Lithuanian champion and defeated Ada Dambrauskas, finalist of the Junior European Championships. Roberts Jānis Zālītis, the season’s leader in Latvia and defending Riga Cup champion, took second place (6.81 sec). 2022 champion Rinald Valts Zariņš completed the award-winning trio with a personal record (6.82 seconds). Reigning 100m champion Oskars Grava, who finished 4th, made it to the strong final round, ahead of last time runner-up and another medalist from the Lithuanian Junior Championships in the preliminary rounds.
Roberts Jānis Zālītis was the best from Latvia in another cup discipline, the long jump, where the son of the well-known track and field athletes Gunt and Ineta Zālītis jumped 7.11 m. The winner with a new competition record of 7.50 m was fourth place finisher in the German Championships, Kevin Bruha. The trio was completed by the season leader in Latvia, Aleksis Gailītis (7.08 m). In the women’s long jump, the trophy also went to another country, as the favorite status was confirmed by the Ukrainian champion Irina Nerubalshchuk with a jump of 6.23 m. This time the winners of second and third place also managed to reach the 6 m mark second place was won by Latvian champion Kitija Paula Melnbardei (6.06 m) and third place went to Inese Bembere, who exceeded the 6 m mark for the first time (6.04 m).
In the women’s 60 m, the cup winner with the best result of the season in Latvia (7.59 seconds), despite a slower start, was the main favorite Gunta Vaičule, who was happy with the start of the “Arkadijas” hall in Riga Cups. Personal records running faster than 7.80 seconds for the first time were also set by the other two winners – Baltic and Latvian championship medalist Vendija Mauriņa (7.76 seconds) and Madara Lungeviča (7.77 seconds).
One of the most anticipated moments was Invida Mauriņa’s attempt to break the Latvian 500 meter record. Supported by loud ovations from the audience, the finalist of last year’s U23 European Championships set a personal record in the 800 m, running faster than 1:15, but the Arcadian fell slightly – half a second – short of the record of 20. year-old Anna Anfinogentova (1:14.40). Even though it didn’t work out this time, Invida proved that the record is within their power. On the 1000 m distance, a very intense duel developed between Krister Kudli, the group leader of the U18 group last season and also a medalist in the adult championship, and the junior champion Kārli Ančan, with Kudli being the first to complete a sprint at eye level (2: 38.96). The best result of the season was also achieved among women, thanks to European Youth Olympic Games medalist Austra Ošiņa, who has already won several gold medals in the adult competition, although not in such an intense battle as among the boys.
The competition’s sixth trophy was won by multi-event winner Krista Sprude, who was fastest in the 60m hurdles with a new personal record of 8.60 seconds. For the men in this discipline, it was only possible to determine with the help of a photo finish that Ralf Zazerski, like last time, defeated Richard Peder in an extremely similar way and achieved the best result and personal record of the season with 8.19 seconds.
The winner of the women’s pole vault was Junior European Championships silver medalist and multiple Lithuanian champion Rugile Mikličiūte, who jumped 4.11 m and set an indoor record. Latvia’s two best pole vaulters from SS “Arkādija”, Paula Kļaviņa and Sima Aškinezere, who cleared 3.81 m, showed the same result, but after a smaller number of unsuccessful attempts, national champion Kļaviņa and finalist of the European Youth Olympic Festival took second place Aškinezere. Boys and girls in the U14 age group also took part in the 300m run, with Edward Benjamin Thorpe (46.22 seconds) and Daria Kuzmina (44.29 seconds) emerging as winners.
While last time no one managed to reach the 1000 point mark, with 999 being very close to Gerda Keri Dreimane, this time 16 results exceeded the 1000 point mark and 11 of them were Latvian athletes.
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