Irina Lenskiy

Irina Lenskiy was born on June 12, 1971, in the Ukraine.

Irina started competing internationally in the early 90's for the Ukraine. In 1995 she was part of the Ukrainian 4 x 400 relay team in the European Championship held in Goteborg. The Ukrainian team placed ninth and narrowly missed the final. Irina's attempts to become a top 400-meter hurdle runner fizzled over time as she could not get past a best time of 55.69 achieved in 1996. In 1997 she ran her best time in a 400-meter race as she clocked in at 52.60.

Irina was an accomplished 400-meter runner in her native Ukraine but gradually moved to shorter distances after the birth of her son. Lenskiy immigrated to Israel in 1999 and proceeded to dominate the female short-distance events in the country. The runner won the National Championship in the 100-meter dash in 2000 and 2001, the 200-meter title in 2001, and the 400-meter title in 1999, the 100-meter hurdle in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. She broke two long standing Israeli records in the 200-meter event with 23.15, and the 100-meter hurdle race with 12.80. During her first few years in Israel Irina struggled to find her international competition niche as she shortened her running distances. In 2002 she made the semi-finals at the European Championship as she ran the 100-meter hurdles in 13.05 seconds. In July of that year she ran her best 100-meter hurdle time in Crete with a nippy 12.80. In 2003 Lenskiy made the European Championship semi-finals again this time at 12.89 seconds.

Irina was caught up in controversy recently, after the Israeli National Championship. She complained that the facilities were inadequate and the medical staff at the competition was inadequate. She was later forced to apologize.

Lenskiy ran in heat 1 of the 100-meter hurdles event in the Athens Games, on August 22, 2004. She finished seventh in her heat (13.75) and placed 33rd out of 38 contestants.

Lenskiy holds the Israeli records in the 100-meter hurdles and 200-meter races. She runs for Maccabi Rishon Letzion and is coached by Phillip Feingold.

On January 28, 2009, Irina ran the 100-meter hurdles in 12.99 second.

Sources: Jews In Sports, www.lansky2008.com