Swimmer Chikunova: “Before the Russian championship, I lost 12 days of preparation due to illness”

Swimming world record holder Evgenia Chikunova in an interview with , she admitted that due to illness she lost a lot of time in preparation for the Russian Championship.

Chikunova will take part in the Russian Short Course Championships, which will be held in St. Petersburg from November 21 to 26.

— We were in Kabardinka (at the training camp), but in the end the temperature was 10-12 degrees. At one point we were swimming in cold water and the next day I had a sore throat. I sat without training until the end of training camp. Vitta Vladimirovna (Novozhilova – Editor’s note) said that it was better to play it safe and see the treatment through. It seemed to me that I had succeeded, but when we arrived in St. Petersburg, it was already clear that I would miss the selection and train. So, I arrive at the first training session and the next day I wake up with a fever. We lost about 12 days of preparation. That’s a lot of missed work, which is frustrating. I want to believe in the best, but it is still difficult to say how I will be able to swim at the Russian Championships.

— Is this the first time that your preparations have been disrupted due to illness before an important competition?

— There was something similar when I arrived at ISL and received a positive covid test. I sat in my room for two weeks, then I only had a few days to relax, catch my breath, and then I started competing in matches. There was just over a month until the World Championships in Abu Dhabi. The situation is therefore similar. Besides, we managed to prepare well at the time; we only lost in the fight for gold because of a key error. I hope that now we will be able to cope with this situation,” Chikunova said.

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