— Anton, the 200m final in Kazan was very cool. Would it have happened like this if the semi-finals had floated?
“It’s hard to say now. Maybe so, though. When I arrived in Kazan, I also thought we weren’t going to the semi-finals.
– After the Russian championship, what did you do?
– I train at home, in my own pool on Semenovskaya. We have an excellent sports complex, a 50 meter outdoor swimming pool, now the open “neighborhood” has been rebuilt. Now everything is there for training. There is also a closed piece of fifty kopecks – there are no such professional cabinets to start with in the open ones. All this ten minutes from my house. Better than anywhere.
The management went ahead, allowing us to train at home. The weather in June was good, it was nice to train.
“Why did you decide to go to Brest?”
“It was a competitive training method. It has shown good results for this condition.
Have you watched the World Cup?
I only saw results.
– Did you have the feeling that Zach Stubblety-Cook was going to break the 200m record again?
– Somehow, there were no such thoughts. I thought I would swim faster, but I didn’t see anything special in the final.
– Is it a pity to lose a record?
There were no upheavals or regrets. As Michael Phelps said, that’s what records are for, to break. Now many costume records have been broken, and I think in general world records will be updated faster.
– If we talk about the emphasis on departures this season, which is more important?
– Of course, we focused on the “Friendship Games”, less than a month before the Spartakiad. The coach will see what needs to be added, what needs to be taken away. He sees through me and knows how to do so he can show a decent result at Spartakiad.
– You started in the complex at the Friendship Games.
– I also swam in Brest, but only two from the country reached the final. Here we had agreed in advance with the coach – if he sees that I will do my best, he will withdraw me from the final. And it happened.
– Do you read news about the Olympic Games, the selections?
I don’t think about the negative at the moment. I live for today. After Tokyo, I made a difficult decision. Now I just like to play. What happens next – we’ll see.
– There is an opinion that athletes will soon begin to massively change their citizenship.
“I didn’t even have that thought. This question did not even arise. I see myself and my life in the future in Russia.
– Do you continue to work with children?
– Yes, but now it’s summer, the children are all with their parents. There were several master classes in Moscow. He held a master class in Volgograd – more than a hundred children took part in one day, they were divided into three groups. They came from the north: from Murmansk, Norilsk. I enjoyed this master class, I saw how much it motivates children.
– Do you feel that there is more attention to swimming?
– The day I swam 200 meters, all the stands at the Friendship Games were full. Even at the World Cup stages, this was not the case. I hope our sport will become more popular.
– In the studio of Dmitry Guberniev, it seemed to you: “Bravo for not leaving.” Can you tell yourself now?
– Maybe yes. Nothing to regret. It wasn’t easy back then, but two months was enough to take a break from the pool. My friends insisted that I come back, they forced me. Forced in a good way. They said they believed in me. Thanks to them I am here.
— After the Olympics, there was a trip to Kamchatka. Tell me about that.
– First we went to Vladivostok. I was there for the third time: before that, we had gone to the rally in front of Gwangju, in front of Tokyo. In general, I wanted to visit the Far East. We weren’t very lucky with the weather, so we couldn’t see everything.
– Did you go surfing?
– No, I had other goals. Volcanoes, boat trip. We saw a whale! True, he immediately swam. There were a lot of orcas. I have never seen them in the wild before. With volcanoes, it didn’t work because of weather and landslides. In general, the best impressions of the trip.
Source : MatchTV
