Russian athletics championships was held to a high standard, Russian team’s head coach says
38 sets of medals were contested during four competition days of the Russian Athletics Championships in Kazan. Summing up the results of the past tournament, head coach of the Russian national team, Yury Borzakovsky, stated that the tournament was held to a high standard.
“All the results are quite good. If it hadn't been for the ban, we would have had a well-prepared national team competing at the European championships. We have only 13 athletes across all events who failed to qualify, so in fact we would have had a complete full-strength team that could have fought for final berths and medals at the Europeans,” the head coach said.
According to Yury Borzakovsky, Polina Miller became the main breakthrough of the championships and the entire season. “She already succeeded to beat big-name rivals, and she has experience of competing internationally. At the moment she is preparing to go to Berlin, and the main thing for now is to preserve her for the next competitions. We put a priority on our reserve, and these athletes need to be guided to the Olympic Games,” the head coach stated.
He also commented on a brilliant performance of Vladimir Nikitin who set a new national record today. “I think that if today he would have competed at international level, where athletes run 3.30, it is entirely possible that he would have finished with 3.33. Volodya just needs a strong competition,” he added.
When asked whether there were any disappointments at the championships, Yury Borzakovsky answered no. “Some events give a reason for thoughts; for instance, in the javelin event we have one leader – Dima Tarabin, and that’d be it. We need to start thinking about how to improve these problematic events. Perhaps, the focus must be on the fact that our athletes need better training venues,” the head coach said. In general, according to him, Russia’s ban from international sporting events had a negative impact on athletics’ popularity in the country.
“I hope that the Russian team will be rehabilitated, and we will be able to compete under the Russian flag,” Yury Borzakovsky stated. “I don’t think that the rehabilitation will be complete, most likely it will be partial. We are looking forward to RUSADA’s return so that we can ensure a much wider coverage of athletes. As a head coach, I hugely support the testing of all athletes; we want to prove that we are clean and we want to show high results at international events.”