Russian track and field athlete Alexander Yaremchuk told how he managed to win gold at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris thanks to a jolt in the final meters of the distance.
On Saturday, Yaremchuk took first place in the 1,500 meters (T46 class), overtaking Australian Michael Roger at the finish.
– What are your feelings now?
“It’s an incredible joy to confirm the title of best Paralympian! It’s worth a lot!”
— You won in Tokyo in 2021, now you won here. How do you manage to be at the top for so many years?
“I will say this: winning once is easy, but confirming your class is much more difficult.”
— Weren’t you afraid that the Australian would run away from you? On the last lap, you literally ate him!
“And I knew that Michael Rogers would run ahead and shoot. But I tried to follow him, to follow him. And I didn’t have absolute certainty that I would win gold. And that can’t be the case. It’s a sport, everything is possible here. But the end is the end. I saw that my opponent was tired. And I had a second wind, so I was able to get it. My tactic was to sit in a group. And wait for the end.
“Nevertheless, your ending is worthy of an epic.” Everything was cool!
— It’s very cool, and I can’t express the emotions in words. When the stadium is full, the crowd pulls you along! I’ve never played in such an atmosphere. When we fled to Tokyo, it was Covid. There were no spectators at the stadium, only the coaches were there. And here is a packed arena, more than 60,000 people. It’s great.
— To whom is this gold dedicated?
“I would like to say a huge thank you to the coach and my family. I have been feeling a bit bad these last few days. A lot of bad thoughts were going around in my head. They supported me very well and helped me. A big thank you to our doctors.
— You’ve been through a lot on the way to this gold.
— Yes, because it was not entirely certain that we would go to Paris. But I was preparing myself, telling myself a year ago that if we go there, I will be ready, “Yaremchuk told .
The performances of Russian athletes at the Paralympic Games can be watched live on the TV channels of the Match holding company, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
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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.
