Ravilya Agletdinova (russian: Равиля Аглетдинова; married name Kotovich; 10 February 1960 – 25 June 1999) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 1 ...

who competed in

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

and

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

events. She was the 1500 m gold medallist at the

1986 European Athletics Championships The 14th European Athletics Championships were held from 26 to 31 August 1986 at the Neckarstadion, now known as Mercedes-Benz Arena, in Stuttgart, a city in West Germany. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. ...

and appeared three times at the

World Championships in Athletics The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...

, her best finish being fourth in 1983. In lower level competitions, she was the winner of the 1985 European Cup in an unbeaten championship record and took silver medals at the

IAAF World Cup The IAAF Continental Cup was an international track and field competition organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The event was proposed by IAAF former President Primo Nebiolo and was first held in 1977 as ...

Friendship Games The Friendship Games, or Friendship-84 (russian: Дружба-84, ''Druzhba-84''), was an international multi-sport event held between 2 July and 16 September 1984 in the Soviet Union and eight other socialist states which boycotted the 1984 Su ...

and

Goodwill Games The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

. She was a three-time champion at the

Soviet Athletics Championships The Soviet Athletics Championships (russian: link=no, Чемпионат СССР по лёгкой атлетике) was an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Soviet Athletics Federation, which served as the Soviet natio ...

. Her personal bests for the 800 m (1:56.24 minutes) and 1500 m (3:58.40 minutes) remain the Belarusian records for the distance. Her daughter Maryna Arzamasava is also a runner. Agletdinova died in a traffic accident in 1999.

Career

Early career

Agletdinova was born in

Kurgan-Tyube , native_name_lang=tg , image_skyline = Бохтар 2018.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = Bokhtar in 2018 , image_flag = , image_seal = , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Tajikistan , pushpin_label_position =bott ...

in the

Tajik SSR The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic,, ''Çumhuriji Şūraviji Sotsialistiji Toçikiston''; russian: Таджикская Советская Социалистическая Республика, ''Tadzhikskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Resp ...

of the Soviet Union. She moved to the

Belarusian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

in 1980 and established herself as a high level runners shortly afterwards, setting bests of 1:58.65 minutes for the 800 m and 4:04.40 minutes for the 1500 m. She improved her 800 m best to 1.56.1 minutes in 1982,Ravilya Agletdinova
Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2015-08-08. then was selected for the

1982 European Athletics Championships The 13th European Athletics Championships were held from 6 September to 12 September 1982 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. Men's results Compl ...

as a result, where she reached the semi-finals. Agletdinova dipped under four minutes for the 1500 m in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

in 1983, setting a new best of 3:59.31 minutes. She was the fastest Soviet entrant at the

1983 World Championships in Athletics The 1st 1983 World Championships in Athletics were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between 7 and 14 August 1983. Summary The overall med ...

, and as the winner of the first ever 1500 m world championship heat she was the inaugural championship record holder. Ultimately was the slowest finisher in the final among the Soviet trio including

Yekaterina Podkopayeva Yekaterina Ilyinychna Podkopayeva (russian: Екатерина Подкопаева; born 11 June 1952 in Moscow) is a retired middle distance runner who represented the USSR and later Russia. She gained international recognition in 1983, when she w ...

and Zamira Zaytseva. America's

Mary Decker Mary Teresa Slaney (formerly Tabb, née Decker, born August 4, 1958) is a retired American middle-distance runner. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships, and was the world re ...

claimed the gold medal and Agletdinova ended the race in fourth place.Casey, Ron
Ravilya AGLETDINOVA - U.S.S.R. - 1500m Gold at 1986 European Championships
Sporting Heroes. Retrieved on 2015-08-08. Still, her time that year ranked her as the world's second fastest 1500 m athlete for the season behind Decker.
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-08-08. She remained among the world's best in the 1984, but the Olympic boycott meant she only competed at the

, where she was the 1500 m silver medallist behind fellow Soviet Nadezhda Ralldugina.

European and national titles

She reached the top of the national scene in 1985 by winning a middle-distance double at the

. Her times of 1:56.24 minutes and 3:58.40 minutes at the championships ranked her as the third fastest athlete of the season for both disciplines. These remain the Belarusian records for the distances. She showed her regional dominance at the 1985 European Cup by winning the 1500 m race by a margin of over four seconds with 3:58.40 minutes, which was the best performance ever recorded at the event by several seconds. A more tactical race came at the 1985 IAAF World Cup towards the end of the season and she was beaten into second place by East Germany's

Hildegard Körner Hildegard Körner, née Ullrich (born 20 December 1959 in Urnshausen) is a retired East German middle distance runner who specialized in the 800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shorte ...

. Agletdinova (setting a time of 3:59.84 minutes) was runner-up over 1500 m to

Tatyana Samolenko Tetyana Apaycheva (née Khamitova, Divorced Samolenko and Dorovskykh, ua, Тетяна Володимирівна Апайчева, née Хамітова, born 12 August 1961) is a Ukrainian retired middle-distance runner who represented the Sov ...

at the Soviet Championships in 1986, and the pair repeated that placing at the

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, leaving Agletdinova as silver medallist. Both were the favoured athletes for that distance at the

held the following month and Agletdinova turned the positions around. With a final lap of 59 seconds, she took the European title with a time of 4:01.19 minutes ahead of her compatriot as well as

Doina Melinte Doina Ofelia Melinte (; née Beșliu on 27 December 1956) is a retired Romanians, Romanian middle-distance runner. She competed at four Olympics (1980–92), and won a gold medal in the 800 metres and a silver medal in the 1500 metres in 1984. S ...

(800 m champion and fastest that year). After this she took a break from athletics and after marrying she had a daughter around 1988.

Later life and career

She returned to competition in the 1990 season and won the third national title of her career with a win over

. Her time of 8.46.86 minutes ranked her in the top ten for the season. She gained selection for the 1500 m at the

1991 World Championships in Athletics The 3rd World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan between August 23 and September 1. 1517 athletes from 167 countries participa ...

, but after a quick heat she was much slower in the final and finished last in 15th place.Ravilya Agletdinova-Kotovich
IAAF. Retrieved on 2015-08-08. After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, she began competing for Belarus internationally. She ran in both the 1500 m and 3000 m in her country's first appearance at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics, but the 33-year-old did not progress beyond the heats. Her last international appearance was an outing in the short race at the 1994 European Cross Country Championships, where she was 66th. For her achievements, she was honoured as Master of Sport of the Republic of Belarus by presidential decree. Following her retirement from athletics she worked in Minsk for the marketing department of ''Delo'' magazine. On 25 June 1999, she died after a traffic accident near Žlobin in Belarus at the age of 39. After her death a

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

meeting in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

was created in her honour: the Ravilya Agletdinova Memorial. Her daughter Maryna Arzamasava competed in the meeting and won the

600 metres The 600 metres is a rarely run middle-distance running event in track and field competitions. It is most often run at high school indoor track and field competitions. All-time top 25 *i = indoor performance *A = affected by altitude *h = ha ...

race.Легкоатлетический мемориал
. VMinsk (2004-06-28). Retrieved on 2015-08-08. Arzamasava later won the 800 m European title, following in her mother's footsteps.Mills, Steven (2014-08-26)
European Championships: Women’s events facts and stats
''Athletics Weekly''. Retrieved on 2015-09-17.

Personal bests

: 1:56.1 minutes (1982, hand-timed)/1:56.24 minutes (1985, automatic) *

: 3:58.40 minutes (1985) *

: 8:46.86 minutes (1990)

National titles

**800 m: 1985 **1500 m: 1985 **3000 m: 1990Soviet Championships
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-08-08.

International competitions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Agletdinova, Ravilya 1960 births 1999 deaths People from Khatlon Region Belarusian people of Tajikistani descent Soviet female middle-distance runners Tajikistani female middle-distance runners Belarusian female middle-distance runners World Athletics Championships athletes for the Soviet Union World Athletics Championships athletes for Belarus European Athletics Championships medalists Road incident deaths in Belarus Goodwill Games medalists in athletics Competitors at the 1986 Goodwill Games Friendship Games medalists in athletics