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The interesting interlocutor

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26.06.07
Targeting at Beijing

In a year in the capital of China – Beijing – the XXIX summer Olympic Games shall take place. Ukraine will also be represented by many sportsmen. Our today's interlocutor is the person, responsible for the preparation of the fencers of combined team – senior coach of competitive team of Ukraine in women epee, Reyzlin Dmytro

- Dmytro Ivanovych, will you tell us, please, what are our expectations from Beijing?
I think that we have to wait with the answer to this question. As for today, we do not have a clear picture of how many Olympic licenses will Ukrainian sportsmen have. Elimination contests, where they will be displayed, will be over in April 2008. And it is not clear now will we have enough of them or the lack of them. I would like to believe, that on the Olympiad Ukrainian fencers, as it has been during the previous years, will perform with dignity and will return home with medals.
 
- Fencing is one of the most popular Olympic sports. And it is very successful for the representatives of Ukraine, isn't it?
Yes, it is. This sport was represented in all contemporary Olympic Games and it was always popular among the spectators. Masters of Ukraine won lots of awards of different value on Olympic starts. And names of Olympic champions – epeeist Grygoriy Krys, fencer Volodymyr Smirnov and saber fencer Vadym Gutsait – forever entered the chronicle of world sport. Vadym Gutsait is the senior coach of combined team of Ukraine in fencing the second Olympic cycle in a row. We have a friendly and strong team, which the world elite shall consider.
 
- And what about women epee in Ukraine? What are the perspectives for it?
We have something and somebody to be proud of, and the future of women epee is very perspective, as it seems to me. Among the greatest achievements of the last years I can name the victory of Natalya Conrad on the championship of the world in 2003 and championship of Europe in 2004, and also the success of Lviver Yana Shemyakina, who won the gold medal on the continent championship in season of 2005. Yana, in particular, the winner and the prizewinner of many junior international contests, including the champions of the World and Europe, is our greatest hope in the next years. Her compatriots and friends in combined team Olya Zadorozhnya and Anfisa Pochkalova are very perspective. Few months ago on the championship of Europe they took the 2nd and the 3rd places accordingly. Katya Blokhina, the Kiever, shall also be named, who is the silver prize winner of the world's contest in 2006 in team fencing. There are more of very interesting and non-ordinary fencers. This gives us, the coaches, the grounds for optimistic look in the future.
But to tell the truth there is one great problem now – the change of the generations, which brings misbalance between experienced and young sportsmen. The transfer from the junior to the adult fencing has always been difficult. Only the most talented and motivated personalities successfully cope with this thorny way. This is on what the staff of the combined team works continually. And, certainly, we will overcome this hard edge; we just have to reserve some more patience and mutual understanding.
 
- What do you think it is connected with?
There are several reasons. I've said about the first one, the process of change of generations in sport, mostly, is very painful and long lasting. Especially when the choice is not very big. Secondly, we have lots of professional coaches at mass level, but there is a lack of professionals of the highest international class. Additionally, especially talented people in sport are born very rarely. There always is the necessity to seek for them, and having found them, patiently raise them and gradually introduce to the champion level. This can be coped with not by any coach. Sadly, but not all of them really understand that. And more, if we want the Olympic champion to appear in our country, there must be just ordinary luck: yet, Yanas Klochkovas (four times Olympic champion of Sidney and Athens – notes of author) are not born yearly. Talking about Natalya Konrad, her talent and mastership brought her to the world fencing elite, gave her the forces and the striving to become strongest sportsman on the planet in 2003. But she couldn't come to the Olympic top – last moment the fortune turned away from her. She couldn't come to Olympic team, because of specific criteria of choice are set by International Fencing Federation.
 
- Dmytro Igorovych, half of pre-Olympic 2007 year has passed. Are you, as the senior coach of the combined team of Ukraine, satisfied with the results of the contests that are over already?
First of all, I must say that all the most important starts in the season of 2007 are still ahead. Of those international tournaments, which have taken place already, I can specify the successful performance of Yana Shemyakina in China. Nowadays she is the most possible candidate from Ukraine to take part in the Olympiad in Beijing. Nadya Fortunova and Yeva Vybornova completely failed the very beginning of Olympic choice. They should try very much in the contests that are still ahead to prove their right to go to the capital of China in a year. There are also questions with other participants of the combined team.
 
- What is the reason?
I think that this is because I've given the sportsmen and their coaches too much of initiative and freedom. The situation is the following: in Olympic program in Beijing the women's epee is represented only in personal form. Team championship shall not be represented. As the kind of experiment, there is the possibility to introduce in the composition of the combined team more of youth. As the choice to the Olympiad is personal and the coaches know their wards better, they have received card-blanche. Trust as it seems, is a good thing, but as we can see, it is not always justified. And for today I have to acknowledge that my decision has been too hasty. I think that during those months, that are still left, we will have to work more centralized to improve the situation.
 
- And how does the closest reserve of the combined team look like?
I have mentioned already the success of lvivers Olya Zadorozhnya and Anfisa Pochkalova, who have taken the second and the third places accordingly at junior championship of Europe in Novisad. This is a worthy result. There have been two our girls on the podium; this is not often that you can see something like that on the competition of that range. And talking about the championship of the world, I'm very unsatisfied with the performance of my wards. When Zadorozhnya could come to the final eight, where the future champion of Italy stopped her (just the same as Olya did in Europe championship) and this result was rather high, the rest of the team performed lower than their possibilities were. And even if we lost during entering the first eight to future champions of the world – French women, it is not easier on these grounds, as the last year and the year before the last year, Ukraine has taken the second place on the podium. Yes, this time the composition of the team is completely changed (all the girls are transferred to the adult team), but this cannot explain this failure. There is a good food for thought and for us, the coaches, and for young sportsmen.
 
- Despite enormous work in national team, you, Dmytro Igorovych, for many years are one of the most active organizers of Kyiv International Junior Tournament "Golden Gate". What does it mean for you? And what do you think can make it more interesting for the spectators and for the athletes?
"Golden Gate" is very important tournament to me and close in the personal view. It is 10 years old now and it takes important place in junior calendar. Many fencing sportsmen passed through it, whose names are still known in sport world. International authority of "Golden Gate" may be proved by the following fact: last year 7 persons from the first world eight came to Kyiv! And the composition of the tournament was exceptionally strong, and the prize fund amounted to – USD 5000. To tell the truth this is the biggest prize fund in the world for the competition like that. It is understandable that in tennis, bicycling or football the awards are more considerable, but for fencing, not perverted by money, USD 5000 are very attractive. They come to us despite colossal loading of international calendar with great satisfaction, and international authority of Kyiv tournament in the world of fencing proves it.
For it to become more attractive, it is necessary to give "Golden Gate" some other, spacious gymnasium, than the present army one. Traditionally, the tournament is organized in the beginning of September. It will gather the strongest young fencers of the planet. And I think that it would be great to see them all in the bigger gymnasium of our capital.

- Let's us turn back to pre-Olympic year. What contests are on the way of our fencing combined team before the end of the season?
There'll be enough of them, as I've said before the struggle for the Olympic licenses is now in its full swing. And the most important are the autumn stages of Cup of the World in Warsaw and Bratislava, then junior championship of Europe in November in Czech Republic. And of course the adult championship of the World in the end of September – beginning of October in Saint-Petersburg. Our main competitors will be the fencers from France, Germany, Hungary and China. I've been working with the national team for five years. During this time there has been just one team, which we haven't won in personal contests of adults – team of China. But the junior contests we won. And to all the other combined teams we have repeatedly proved our priority. I've been to China tree weeks ago on the tournament and turned attention to the vast representation there of local sportsmen. If in the championships in Russia, Ukraine, France there are 100 persons in participation, in China – up to 1000. The end of the season as you can see is going to be very saturated and intense. The nearest perspective of Ukrainian fencing will depend a lot on the results shown during this period.

- Thank you for interesting conversation. I wish success to you and your wards!

27.07.07 - This is how the stars come out
17.07.07 - ROMAN SADOROZHNY: "Just the real participation in the World fencing championship will show what our national team capable of"
01.07.07 - Yana Shemyakina "I m proud of being Lviver"
26.06.07 - Targeting at Beijing