The 2018 Russian Athletics Championships was held July 19-22 at Central Stadium in Kazan. The capital of Tatarstan hosted the event for the third time, having done so previously in 2008 and 2014. Around 1000 athletes from 76 regions of the country participated in the competition. Over the course of four days, 38 events were contested. For the third year in a row, the national championships did not include the selection of an international team (on this occasion, for the 2018 European Athletics Championships). This was due to the continuation Russia's ban from international athletics by the IAAF due to doping, which began in 2015. Three Russians, who competed at that competition as Authorised Neutral Athletes (Sergey Shubenkov, Anzhelika Sidorova and Danil Lysenko), chose not to compete at the national event, instead competing at the Herculis 2018 IAAF Diamond League meeting. Vladimir Nikitin won the men's 1500 metres in a championship record of 3:35.85. After the collapse of the USSR, only two people showed faster results at this distance: the country's record holder Vyacheslav Shabunin and Andrei Loginov. Aleksandr Lesnoy improved his personal record to 21.58 m, bringing him to fourth among Russia's all-time men's shot putters. The 2012 Olympic champion Anna Chicherova returned from her doping ban but was beaten into second place by world-leader Mariya Lasitskene. Ekaterina Ivonina set a European-leading time of 9:16.68 to win the 3000 metres steeplechase. She led from start to finish and beat the silver medalist by 22 seconds. Several athletes extended their list of national honours: Dmitry Tarabin won the javelin for the sixth time in a row, while hurdler Konstantin Shabanov became a six-time champion in the 110 metres hurdles. Championships During 2018, Russian championships were held in various cities in individual athletics disciplines: 31 March — Russian Championships in mountain running (uphill) (Zheleznovodsk) 28 April — Russian Championships in cross country running (spring) (Zhukovskiy) 30 April — Russian Championships in marathon (Volgograd) 6 May — Russian Championships in mountain running (uphill-downhill) (Rybinsk) 12—13 May — Russian Championships in 24-hour run (Moscow) 30—31 May — Russian Championships in relay (Smolensk) 9—10 June — Russian Championships in racewalking (Cheboksary) 30 June — Russian Championships in 10,000 metres (Zhukovskiy) 4—5July — Russian Championships in combined track and field events (Smolensk) 2 September — Russian Championships in half marathon (Yaroslavl) 9 September — Russian Championships in 15K run (Saransk) 9 September — Russian Championships