At the International University Sports Festival, divers, unlike many other sports, have a serious composition. In fact, even the champions of Europe – Nikita Shleikher, Anna Konanykhina, Ekaterina Belyaeva. spoke to Russian national team head coach Svetlana Moiseeva about the importance of this start at a transitional time of the year.
— We have many top athletes here who are students. I know of only two who refused this event, but athletes such as Schleicher, Konanykhina and Kuzina decided to start. I am happy that they have the opportunity to participate in another international competition, especially since the start was organized in a rather pompous way, with the participation of athletes from other countries. Of course, we would like to see more of them and they were stronger, but it is important for us that after a month of rest, forcing the preparation, the team shows a good level of jumping.
– Is the moment difficult from the point of view of preparation?
– It is not a very favorable time for the event, but in principle, all university events take place in mid-August. If we had prepared for it systematically, everything would be fine, but the championship of Russia took place in June – it turned out to be a month-long break, many pools in the country do not work. Someone went on vacation, someone was preparing at home, and Konanykhina’s swimming pool was closed. It was therefore necessary at some point to force the preparation. It’s not very good.
But we don’t have a lot of international competitions and the athletes want to compete. If we knew that tomorrow we are preparing for the Olympic Games, that the preparation plan is like that, I would be against participating in these competitions.
– After the Russian championship in June, you said that there were not enough supporters in the stands in Yekaterinburg. Is it more fun now?
– The second day was more fun, the first day there were empty stands. Went to see if there were spectators in other sports as I still don’t understand the safety measures – two mile walk to venue after leaving car at EXPO. There may be a few shuttles, but still a few more hurdles for people to come and watch the competition.
– The very fact of the presence of the Chinese makes our guys jump better?
– Certainly. In addition, the Chinese skip a program in the preliminaries and complicate things towards the final. In the final, the boy climbed the 10-meter tower – there are already jumps of a different level. It stimulates, it pushes, it’s not “no one to compete with, I’m just going to go jump”.
— Do you still think about taking part in the Asian Games?
Now as spectators. I wonder if the Chinese will take the first train, because they have already obtained all the licenses. For them, it’s just an international experience.
– What is the next step in preparation?
– On September 1, we will start training camp in Sochi with the whole team. And we start again, according to all the laws of preparation. The guys who played this festival will probably take a longer break in December to recuperate.
– Zhenya Kuznetsov will resume training with the team?
– From September 1st. And there we will see if he can support the work with the foot. You may need the help of rehabilitation specialists – they are at Yug Sport.
Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
