Yana Martynovа: At home even the walls help

Yana Martynova (gold in the women's 400m individual medley)

- At home even the walls help. Each time when my name is announced, there is a roar and it's so delightful to hear how everybody supports me. It drives me forward and I don't want to lose and let my fans down. There were a lot of my friends and relatives at the venue. I felt their support that's why I was eager to show a good result. I'm very happy because I met the qualifying time for the World Championships but I'm very sad that I missed the national record by one hundredth of a second. 

I've been dreaming to break it for a long time but I failed. Just one hundredth! Of course, I will do my best to beat this record at the World Championships and Salnikov Championships in December. 

- What should one do at the World Championships to end up among the top three podium finishers?

- To swim really fast! What is more, one needs to swim fast not only in the evening but in the morning as well, to make it to the final. Usually swimmers swim so fast in the morning that they cannot swim that fast later in the final. That's why one has to strain every sinew in the morning so that to demonstrate one's best results and even to set records. 

Danila Izotov (gold in the men's 200m freestyle)

- How do you assess your performance? You've failed to beat your own record.

- I have a long way to go to the record, I simply enjoyed my swim. And I finally hit my stride, I felt like a fish in the water and everything turned out well. 

- How is the preparation for the World Championships going on?

- It's good, without incidents and injuries.

- Your trip to Kazan was rather tricky, you even had to take a car. How come?

- We were supposed to have a 6am flight from Volgograd but the plane didn't arrive because of fog. The flight kept being delayed and eventually the plane didn't arrive at all. But they said that the plane will arrive the next day. But on Saturday I was to compete and my dad and I decided to take a car. We drove a car and reached Kazan at 5 in the morning. 

- So you haven't rested at all? 

- I had my rest during the ride. The trip was very problematic because of fog. It took us very long to get here.