“An American asked why we are playing in neutral status”: Shubenkov about the doping scandal and the World Cup silver in Doha

“The whole season turned out to be difficult, and the silver of the World Cup became its quintessence”

The flight from Doha to Moscow turned out to be unusual for one of the main characters of the World Athletics Championship Sergey Shubenkov, because he celebrated his 28th birthday in the air, on which journalists congratulated him on arrival.

- Perhaps, on the plane I celebrated Birthday for the first time in my life. I had to compete, but not on board. I will see my family only tomorrow. There’s a flight still in the evening.

“How many recognized you on your way home?”

- Just passed customs control, and the employee strictly asked what I was doing in Qatar. When he answered that he was running, he cried out: “Ah, sure! Congratulations! ”

- Can you name the silver medal of the World Cup in Qatar one of the most difficult in your career?

- To some extent, yes. But the season turned out to be very difficult, this silver became its quintessence. Everything was very difficult, but I got useful experience and learned a lot about myself. I realized that I am able to fight even in difficult situations.

- After all, there was a possibility that due to an injury you would miss the World Cup at all ...

- Indeed, a month and a half before the championship of the planet I was just trying to get back on track and showed a modest result - 13.88 seconds. To make you understand, I ran like this when I came to the “barriers” at the age of 14. At that moment, they thought for a long time whether it was worth continuing, but in the end they decided what it was and everything turned out.

Moreover, the injury was actually with a double, or even a triple bottom. It would seem that just scratched, and this led to a whole bunch of problems. After all, athletes seem to be all iron people, but in fact our body is sometimes like a house of cards. Enough blows to make it fall.

"Now I will ask you not to put me and MacLeod on the adjacent tracks"

- Many participants in the World Cup complained of extreme heat. Did she bother you?

- The weather was great. For example, in the final protocol of our race, the judges wrote that it was 26 degrees. But you need to understand that the stadium had a modern climate control system. Inside the arena, the conditions were amazing. But I didn’t want to warm up on the street at 40 degrees. Fortunately, the warm-up was moved to the arena, and many athletes moved there.

- In the final, you lost nothing to Grant Holloway. Is it a shame?

- It only seems that 0.05 seconds is not enough, and when you run a distance, every hundredth is felt. For example, I clearly know whether I will win or not, even if the margin is small. The exception is last year’s European Championships in Berlin, but there I lost two thousandths to Pascal Martino-Lagarde.

Moreover, I repeat, you need to understand that my season is actually divided into two parts: before the injury and after it. Winning a medal in such a situation is already a significant success. In fact, it was only in September that they managed to reach the June turnovers. Now I just want to get home.

- After the injury that you got in the collision with Omar MacLeod, are you not afraid to run along the adjacent tracks with him?

- There is no fear, just an extra illustration appeared that it’s better not to stand next to him, and especially not to run. I’ll ask you not to put us on the adjacent tracks. Remember the final race in Qatar, where MacLeod fell on Orlando Ortega. But the Spaniard fled to the medal. As a result, he received it because the IAAF decided to present two awards at once, although this is rather strange. Nevertheless, I am happy for Ortega, because he is really fast and could claim the highest places if he had not been disturbed.

“And yet, if you go back to MacLeod ...”

- He gave a big interview before the start of the championship of the planet, in which he stated that he was not afraid of challenges and trials. In fact, he demonstrates from time to time that he is just afraid of them. When he runs alone, everything is fine, but as soon as Omar is caught up, he starts to stumble and get nervous. Actually, this is how I got injured. In Rabat, I managed to overtake him on the tenth barrier, and the Jamaican simply fell on my foot from behind. In Qatar, the MacLeod factor also worked, but not against me.

“I think that by the end of the year the situation with the status of VFLA will be resolved”

- Did you manage to cheer for other Russian athletes at the World Cup?

- Honestly, it was hard to do this, and really did not follow the guys. But already after the fact, I learned that Angelica Sidorova performed very well. Her victory crawled to goosebumps. Nobody probably doubted the success of Maria Lasitskene, but this is a sport, and everything is possible here. At 99%, Masha was to take first place again. I was very ill for Ilya Shkurenev, it’s a pity, he didn’t have enough for a medal. And ahead there are still competitions in men's long jump, where the Russians have good chances for rewards. So, if we compare with the last World Cup, then we already have more gold, but we still do not get silver.

- Tell us, what kind of story happened to you at the doping control?

- When I closed the lid on the can, a plastic cork flew out of me. I also thought that this was normal and tried to return it to its place, but they explained to me that this should not be done. I had to repeat the procedure. But there were no questions, they replaced the cork, and that’s all. He reacted with humor to this.

- Do you really worry about the fact that you still can’t fly under the Russian flag?

- This is unpleasant, but I regard what is happening as an annoying formality with which we have to put up.

- And what is your opinion about the new round of the doping scandal in Russian sports? Not afraid to skip the Tokyo Olympics?

- There are fears, but I can not do anything about it, so I accept without too much emotion. In principle, I think that by the end of the year, the IAAF should deal with the status of the VFLA. But here it all depends on the incoming information. In fact, these are turns of the old story. We probably will not know anything new. Therefore, I will prepare for the Olympic Games as usual.

Again, this situation cannot be compared with that which was three or even two years ago, when a special code of conduct for Russian athletes was issued before the World Cup in London. Now, most athletes do not even know what the situation is. The same Holloway at the awards ceremony, without any second thought, wondered why we are in neutral status. Believe me, the world of athletics is very large, and few people know what is happening in our country.