Galina Bukharina enters her ninth season as Texas State’s head track and field coach. Bukharina has garnered eight Southland Conference Coach of the Year honors as the Bobcats have won eight Southland Conference championships since she became the University’s seventh head coach.
In 2010, Bukharina coached four SLC individual champions while leading the Bobcat women to a third place finish at the Southland Conference Outdoor Championships.
In 2009, Texas State won four SLC Indoor Championship titles and seven SLC Outdoor Championship titles, while qualifying 16 individuals to the NCAA Midwest Regional and three to the NCAA Championships. Asiya Iskakova earned 2009 SLC Indoor Female Athlete of the Year honors, Highest Point Scorer (26) and Newcomer of the Year. Iskakova was also named the SLC Female Newcomer of the Year for the 2009 season, while Valerie Hancock earned 2009 SLC Outdoor Field Performer of the Meet accolades.
In 2007, the Bobcats had four athletes capture Southland Conference championships at the indoor meet. Texas State went on to capture another eight titles at the outdoor championships. Texas State had a total of 26 individual and relay all-conference performances in the combined championships in 2006. The Bobcat women posted a third-place finish during the indoor conference meet and were second at the outdoors.
In her first two seasons, Texas State captured consecutive men’s indoor and outdoor championships as well as back-to-back women’s indoor titles. The team also won the women’s outdoor championship in 2004. In 2005 she guided the Bobcats to several individual honors including the women’s athlete of the year during the indoor season.
Bukharina is in her 18th season as a member of the Texas State coaching staff and has been a part of 10 Southland Conference team championships. During her nine-year tenure as Texas State’s head coach, she has mentored 73 individual and relay teams to Southland Conference championships.
She also has had success at the NCAA championships. Most recently was Kemuel Morales, who earned All-American honors in the shot put at the 2009 NCAA Championships. She mentored Inez Turner to consecutive NCAA national titles in the 800 meters. She has also coached six other All-Americans including Morales, hurdlers Keevan Mills and Bridgitte Foster as well as multi-honoree Brian Veal in the jumps. Katya Kostetskaya also earned All-America honors in her first season at Texas State.
Three of Bukharina’s former and current athletes represented their respective countries at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Lyudmila Litvinova, a 2007 graduate of Texas State, ran the second leg of the Russia’s 4x400 meter relay that earned a silver medal. She is currently ranked 16th in the world in the 400 meters.
Katya Kostetskaya, a 2007 Graduate, placed third in the semifinal round of the 800 meters with a time of 1:58.33 for Russia. She has a personal-best time of 1:56.67 at the Russian Olympic Trials to finish in fifth place. She is currently ranked sixth in the world in the 800 meters.
Bridgette Foster-Hylton, a 1998 graduate, placed sixth in the 100 meter hurdles for Jamaica, finishing in a time of 12.66. She is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in the event and No. 4 overall in the women’s world rankings. Foster-Hylton most recently won the 100 hurdles at the 2009 World Championships to win the first gold medal of her career in the event.
Before coming to Texas State, Bukharina coached in the former Soviet Union where she worked in several different capacities for the national team for over 17 years. She served as the senior coach for the national junior team for five years. In 1980, she was promoted to the Soviet Union National Team as an assistant coach responsible for the sprints, 400 meters and relay events.
For over 14 years she has coached many of the world’s top sprint and hurdle athletes. She coached the world record-breaking women’s 1600 meter relay team that captured the gold medal at the 1988 Olympics.
After the 1988 Olympics, Bukharina coached four Olympic individual gold medalists, two Olympic gold medal relay teams and seven European and World Championships gold medal performers.
Bukharina has been credited with developing four of the most internationally successful athletes from the former Soviet Union as well as the three top finishers in the 400 meters in the 1983 Helsinki World Championships.
She was named the USSR’s National Track and Field Olympic Coach of the Year three times from 1980 to 1988.
Bukharina graduated from technical school in the Department of Ekaterinburg in 1967. She later received a degree in physical education and economics from Moscow State University in 1972.
The native of Voronej was the champion of the USSR in the 100 and 200 meters and the 400 meter relay. She represented the USSR in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, claiming a bronze medal in the 400 meter relay.
Bukharina has two daughters.
