Antonina Krivoshapka

Who is Antonina Krivoshapka?

Antonina Vladimirovna Krivoshapka is a Russian sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. She holds 400 m personal bests of 49.16 s outdoors and 50.55 s indoors.

Hailing from Rostov-on-Don, Krivoshapka won the silver medal in the 400 m at the 2003 World Youth Championships in a time of 53.54 s, and won bronze in the Medley Relay. However she had little success in the following years, placing only fifth in the heats of the 2004 World Junior Championships. She did not improve on her personal best in 2005 or 2006, and only competed on the national level. However, she began to steadily improve her performances in 2007 and 2008, posting seasonal bests of 52.32 s and 51.24 s respectively.

Krivoshapka's international breakthrough came in 2009, where she set a personal best of 50.55 s over 400 m indoors to win the Russian indoor championships, and subsequently won the 400 m gold medal at the 2009 European Indoor Championships. At the same championships she won a gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay, together with teammates Natalya Antyukh, Darya Safonova and Yelena Voynova.