“I’m particularly looking forward to Kliment Kolesnikov.” Bosnian swimmer Sirotanovic – about April starts in Banja Luka

Dino Sirotanovich started swimming in Russia, even “swam” to the Friendship Games and the national championship, but decided to compete for Bosnia and Herzegovina – his father is Bosnian. In an interview with , he spoke about his expectations from the competition in Banja Luka, where Russian swimmers will also arrive in April.

— In Russia, I trained with Oleg Yuryevich Lobanov, who played for the Astrakhan region. I am very grateful to him, my whole sports career happened thanks to him, we still keep in touch.

— What level did you reach in Russia?

— I started at the national championships, at the Friendship Games in Kazan, when Kliment Kolesnikov broke the world record. My results were then in the 60s.

— How did you get to Bosnia? As I understand it, they did not make the national team and did not participate in world swimming competitions, which means that this cannot be called a change in sports citizenship.

– Yes, it’s true. I didn’t make the national team. My father is Bosnian, my mother is Russian. My father moved for work and invited me to accompany him – since childhood I dreamed of visiting the Balkans. Now I live in Sarajevo and train with the national team.

— Where does the Bosnian national team train?

— For example, Lana Pudar trains in Banja Luka and Trebinje. These are the main bases where training camps take place. Sarajevo also has an Olympic swimming pool, but for some reason they don’t like to organize training camps here, even though the Bosnian championship, for example, is held there.

— The competitions in Banja Luka… What do they mean for Bosnians?

– These are club competitions – a common phenomenon in Europe. They invite people, from what I understand the standards can be met here. For me personally, it will be a tedious start, as I prepare for the European Championships. Ability to check your form and chat with Russians.

— What kind of swimming pool is there in Banja Luka?

– “Fifty dollars” and “quarters”. Average level, regular pool.

— Did you consciously stay on the journey after moving? Have you ever wanted to try your hand at, for example, water polo?

— It is well developed in the Balkans. By the way, I went to watch Croatia against Serbia at the World Championships. Exciting!

In general, I consciously chose swimming. I wanted to try myself in basketball, volleyball and play tennis, but I have third degree flat feet and cannot seriously engage in such sports. But I was thinking about water polo. It’s a more mature sport, and after a swimming career, based on that, I was able to try to prove myself in the sport.

— Was the Doha World Championship your first?

– Yes. I was also at the European Championships in Bucharest.

— What was the atmosphere like in Doha? February’s World Cup is an unusual story. A lot of people missed it.

“It made him pretty lethargic.” The level was higher than at the European Championships, but the intensity of the fight was still different. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but both from feelings and conversations from the outside, it’s definitely true – he wasn’t like that in terms of energy.

— Since you moved to Bosnia, have you changed anything in the training process?

— In Russia I trained twice a day, here I changed my approach – the emphasis was on sprint preparation. There is a coach we are working with on a plan. Now I do four to six workouts per week on the water, plus three to four strength training sessions in the gym. I’m a pure sprinter, I like this kind of training, it suits me better. Until the age of 17, I prepared in volume – there were no results. He completed his master’s degree in sports at the age of 18. And from then on, I started practicing feeling more. In a year and a month, we managed to move from the CMS to the result of the Russian “international”.

—Are you expecting a visit from Kliment Kolesnikov?

– Especially him. We don’t know each other, I wasn’t in the national team. I would like to talk to him.

— Because he is a spinner and sprinter?

“I always followed him, he was a favorite swimmer who inspired me.” I wanted to communicate with him in real life. In Russia, such an opportunity did not exist.