And we end the year 2018 with two flash news from Russia.
Indoor Championships of the Republic of Mordovia in Saransk
5.000m indoor women
The London Olympic champion 2014, Yelena Lashmanova won the indoor walking championships of the Republic of Mordovia.
Yelena Lashmanova competed on the 5000m indoor won in 20:39.9.
His best indoor time on the unusual distance of 5,000m for women is 20:15.6 from 2016.
Second place for Elvira Khasanova (still 18 years old because she will turn 19 next Jan. 10, 2019) in 20:55.3 (personal best and third best time of all time U20)
Third place for the winner of the U23 European Championships in Bydgoszcz (POL) 2017, Klavdiya Afanasyeva in 21:30.9 (personal best)
5.000m indoor men
Victory for the silver medal of the World Championships in London 2017, Sergey Shirobokov who set the best time of his career in 18:45.7 (the previous personal best on the indoor distance was 19:00.4, always obtained in Saransk on the occasion of the Mordovia championships on Dec. 30, 2016)
Second place for Aleksey Kudashkin in 18:58.0 (also for him personal best, previous of 21:15.16 obtained in Novocheboksarsk, RUS on Jan. 15, 2015).
Third place for Sergey Rakov still nineteen (born June 13, 1999) in 19:01.8 which is the third best overall time for the U20 category.
Denis Nizhegorodov announces his retirement at 38 years of age
"Regrettably, time has come for me to say goodbye to sport. I wish I could continue my career, but the age and injuries leave me no chance of getting high results. Today, the national team has younger athletes who are more strong than me", declared Nizhegorodov to Grigorij Sysoev of the TASS.
"Now I am working as a coach at the Olympic Reserve School, taking care of the training of young athletes".
Denis Nizhegorodov was one of Russia's greatest athletes of the years between 2000 and 2010.
During that years he won two World Cups (La Coruna, 2006 and Cheboksary, 2008) and obtained two medals at the Olympic Games (Athens 2004: silver and Beijing 2008: bronze).
Epic was his last kilometer in 50km of Athens completed completely in crisis of forces and liquids.
To complete his palmares: two victories in the European Race Walking Cup in Metz (FRA) in 2009 and in Olhao (POR) in 2011.
His last big victory was the one obtained at the World Championships in Daegu (KOR) on Sep. 3, 2011 when he completed the 50km in 3:42:45.