Several days before the Championship had started Valery Kulichenko said that according to experts' estimates, Russian athletes might win about 16 different medals and most likely yield the palm to their U.S. rivals in the team placing. However, Russian athletes won 19 medals with 8 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze ones among them and the U.S. national teams won only 10 medals tracking behind the Russians.
Moreover, authors of 5 out of six world records set up at the Championship were Russian athletes. According to Mr Kulichenko, such results have inspired the national team members to victory.
Russian athletes participating in the press conference said they think the World Championship was a sort of a rehearsal of the forthcoming Olympic Games in Athens.
As for the U.S. national team, which was generally seen as a leader of major international competitions, Valentin Balakhnichev, president of All-Russian Track and Field Federation said "any scandals affect a team as a rule." U.S. athletes were in the center of many doping scandals of 2003.
