Liudmila Blonska





Team Visa CEMEA Hopeful

Date of birth: 09/11/77
Sport: Heptathlon
Languages: Russian

Achievements to date:

Internationals:

2008
Hypo Meeting, Götzis: 2nd place

2007
World Championships 2007, Osaka: 1x Silver (Heptathlon)

2006
World Indoor Championships 2006, 1x Gold (Pentathlon)
European Championships 2006: 5th (Heptathlon)

2005
Universiade, Ismir: 1x Gold (Heptathlon) 		  Liudmila Blonska, née Shevchuk, is a Ukrainian heptathlete.

She finished thirteenth at the 2002 Athletics Championships, won the gold medal at the 2005 Universiade and finished fifth at the 2006 European Championships. She also competed at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

In the pentathlon she won the Gold medal at the 2006 World Indoor Championships.

Her personal best heptathlon score is 6832 points, a Ukrainian record, achieved in August 2007 in Osaka, where she won the silver medal.

After an intensive pre-season in the Ukraine, Liudmila made a very encouraging start to the 2008 season in Zaporozhiye. She performed especially well in the long jump and 60m hurdles.

Full of confidence, Liudmila arrived in Valencia for the World Indoor Championships, however in the reduced version of her sport (pentathlon rather than heptathlon) she finished in 8th behind a very strong field. She has since discovered that she was suffering from fatigue, so spent a few weeks following the competition concentrating on her training.

This decision paid off.

Liudmila recently competed at the prestigious Hypo Meeting in Götzis, Austria. After winning the event in 2007, Liudmila was determined to pull off another stellar performance this year.

Liudmila’s main competition,Tatyana Chernova of Russia, earned 6,618 points to win at the annual multi-discipline events competition dubbed the "unofficial world championships."

Liudmila finished a very close second with 6,570 points, followed by Anna Bogdanova of Russia with 6,452 points. She celebrated her win with a short holiday in Ukraine and then got straight back into training in preparation for the Ukrainian Cup (July) and the Beijing Olympic Games.