Pavel Muyakin, head coach of the Russian diving team, spoke about the first day of the Spartakiads in Kazan and the scandal with the German Jan Hempel.
Earlier, Olympic medalist Hempel said that from the age of 11 he was sexually abused by his coach Werner Langer for 14 years. The confessions of Hempel, 51, sounded in a documentary film by the German television channel ARD. Langer committed suicide in 2001.
– Did yours play the pedestal today?
– Not really. Schleicher and Belevtsev are athletes from Kazan, Kuznetsov is from Stavropol. But in fact, we are all from Stavropol. We moved to Kazan 11 years ago for several reasons. I took the children with me, who have been studying with me since the age of five. Since then, we have been going through life together.
– The places on the pedestal have been distributed as they should have been?
– At the moment, Zhenya Kuznetsov is stronger. But, evaluating the whole year, one should not forget that Nikita Shleikher won the championship and the Cup of Russia. A month ago he was seriously injured, broke two toes in his leg. He just recovered, so his Spartakiad money, I think, is generally heroic. I wasn’t in my best shape today, but I did my best.
Did Schleicher break his fingers in the pool?
– Before speaking at the Friendship Games, he fell off the board. The springboard is a serious projectile, you can usually bond with the sport if you can’t remember.
– Did you know that Kuznetsov would focus on the last jumps?
– Zhenya’s fifth and sixth, of course, are magnificent. Especially the sixth. He always succeeds. In general, Zhenya is a great athlete with extensive experience, so today’s medals went to everyone based on their deserts.
– Is the scandal with a bad past in German show jumping that broke out at the suggestion of Jan Hempel able to cast a shadow over the whole sport?
– I don’t want to comment. I know this athlete, I absolutely agree that being silent until the age of 50 and then suddenly speaking out when the accused coach is already dead is hard to explain, to say the least. I don’t know what is involved. And in general, I am very negative about all this. The dirt is terrible.
Source : MatchTV
