Olympic high jump champion Anna Chicherova is among Russia's best bets for winning a gold at the World Championships in Beijing.

DPA/Moscow

Russia is unlikely to dominate the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Beijing as it did on home ground in Moscow two years ago.
The team, which also won the most events at the European team championship earlier this summer in the Russian city of Cheboksary, expects to take home only two or three golds from the Bird’s Nest at the August 22-30 championships, compared to seven in 2013.
“We plan to get two or three gold medals and a total of eight to 10 medals,” head coach Yury Borzakovsky, a former middle-distance runner, said yesterday.
The country’s biggest hopes for gold, he said, are triple jumper Yekaterina Koneva and Olympic high jump champion Anna Chicherova.
“For the silver we’re counting on Maria Kuchina (high jump) and in the overall medal plan Sergei Shubenkov (110m hurdles), and Alexander Menkov and Darya Klishina (long jump),” Borzakovsky said.
Menkov will defend his 2013 title in Beijing and two members of the successful women’s 4x400m are also returning—Kseniya Ryzhova in the 400m and Olympic champion Natalya Antyukh in the 400m hurdless.
The full team is made up of 71 athletes, far less than the 119 who competed in Moscow.
Sports minister Vitaly Mutko said this month that the number of medals from Beijing would be “not so important” because the Russian team doesn’t have an optimal composition.
Mutko said the team should be better prepared for next year’s Olympics in Rio.
There are several reasons for Russia’s lack of returning gold medal winners.
Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva has retired to raise a daughter, race walker Alexander Ivanov is serving his mandatory year in the Russian military, and high-jumper Svetlana Shkolina is out due to injury.
But Russia has also been hit by doping accusations, with the ruling body IAAF and the World Anti-Doping Agency investigating after a German television documentary last year suggested widespread doping in the country.
Some athletes have been suspended and especially hard hit is the race walking team, with Russia not entering any athletes into the women’s 20km event.
Russia got gold and silver in the 2013 race, but this year the country decided not to allow the women’s race walkers to compete until the completion of the investigation.