Ukrainian athlete Yaroslava Mahuchikh, author of the best world performance of the year in the high jump (2.03 m), told Eugene on Wednesday that the Russian "killers" had no place at the Worlds, which begin Friday.
The 20-year-old woman in particular mentioned the case of her rival and ex-Russian friend, the reigning world champion and Olympic champion Mariya Lasitskene, who will not be able to line up in Eugene.
"Before February 24 [the date of the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine], we had good relations, we talked to each other," Mahuchikh told reporters about Lasitskene.
But that day changed everything because she never wrote to our athletes.
And then she wrote to Thomas Bach [IOC President] to be able to compete.
I don't want to see killers on the trail.
Because this war has killed many of our athletes.
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No Russians and Belarusians in Eugene
Yaroslava Mahuchikh traveled to the Indoor Worlds in Belgrade in March, fleeing her hometown of Dnieper in eastern Ukraine in her own car.
An experience she lived in a state of “total panic”, she said on Wednesday: “Three days in the car, the longest three days of my life.
»
As a reminder, there will be no Russian athletes in Eugene, the International Athletics Federation having followed the recommendation of the International Olympic Committee to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from its competitions after the invasion of Ukraine.
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