“I have never been in such a situation”: Borzakovsky on the removal of Russia, dislike for the marathon and work as a sports director

Yury Borzakovsky started the current athletics season in a new position.

The Athens gold medalist became the sports director of the All-Russian Athletics Federation (VFLA), resigning as head coach.

Outwardly, it remained the same: the same inquisitive look, instant reaction to everything that happens on the field, and very accurate comments.

Yury and I spent the Russian Championship sitting side by side over the commentary position, and it was absolutely impossible not to turn on the recorder.

- Is a gray head heredity or a consequence of working as a head coach?

- I do not even know.

Possibly a consequence.

I came at a not quite calm time, so I had to spend a decent amount of nerves.

Now the work has become more, but the hassle is much less.

Therefore, I feel much better.

- Many times I was convinced that the position of the head coach is a position that is very unpleasant and even painful to lose.

You are constantly at the forefront of the sport and, having retired, you lose a very emotional piece of life.

How was it for you?

- The fact is that, for all six years that I was the head coach, we were suspended.

Accordingly, my position was somewhat nominal.

Yes, I controlled the training process of all the leaders, as well as the work of senior specialists in each discipline.

But the team, as such, did not select.

We were waiting for our federation to be restored in its rights, but we did not wait.

Therefore, for myself, I made a decision that the Tokyo Olympics will be my final event as a head coach.

And on September 30, 2021, when my contract ended, I simply did not renew it.

- Is your current role in Russian athletics only the organization of competitions?

- Not only.

My responsibilities include the development of the sport as a whole.

There are many development areas that I oversee.

- When you watch competitions, are the eyes of the head coach and sports director different things?

- Of course.

Being in charge of the national team, I really did not pay attention to all the beauty of what was happening on the field, because I had to control a lot of things related to the preparation of athletes.

Now I look at the guys with some interest, follow their results, but at the same time, my primary task is to ensure that the competitions are held at the highest possible level.  

- And this beauty is not violated by the fact that Russian athletics have been actually isolated from the world for many years, and many people note that the level of results has noticeably decreased in this regard?

- Now I'm not talking about the results, but about the organization and holding of competitions.

Even now, we are not somewhere in the backyard, but in a beautiful stadium, which, at one time, hosted the European team championship.

There are sponsors who help us, the broadcast is on Match TV.

During the Russian Championship, I talked with representatives of the regional ministry, they told me that every day there were almost 2 million views.

That is, more than 6 million people watched live broadcasts during the three days of the competition.  

- Now all people, and not only from the field of sports, are, as it were, divided into three categories.

The first believe that everything will end soon, and Russia will be restored to its rights.

The latter are convinced that the suspension will drag on for a long time.

And the third category does not think about it at all and does its job.

Which category do you belong to?

— I think, to the third.

The business of athletes and specialists is to train and show results.

Representatives of the Federation - to engage in development.

Those whose responsibility it is to rebuild the ARAF internationally must also do their job.  

Do what you must, and come what may?

- Well, why come what may?

I think that if each of us does his job correctly, there will certainly be a result.

- As a recent athlete, do you understand where such athletes as Anzhelika Sidorova, Maria Lasitskene get motivation from?

What is it like to find motivation without having the certainty that there will still be the Olympic Games in your life, or at least the World Cup?

It is difficult for me to talk about this, because I have never been in such a situation.

In the current realities, it seems to me that this is more of a coaching task.

Take Anzhelika with her mentor Svetlana Abramova: in Cheboksary they showed the best result of the season in the world, and that's great.

Yes, their own immediate future does not depend on them at all, but, on the other hand, they still prove that they are the best in the world.

Now it is very important to be ready at any moment to enter the international arena and demonstrate your high level there.

Sidorova and Abramova are ready for this.

The same Masha Lasitskene.

She jumped her two meters.

I think if it was in a more serious rivalry, she would have jumped even higher.  

- And was it difficult for you to motivate yourself for training work after you became the Olympic champion in Athens, having won there, according to many fans, the most beautiful victory of the Games?

First of all, I didn't believe.

Month, probably, could not believe that he had won.

It was only later that I began to realize this.

When I returned from Athens at the end of the season, I was greeted like Gagarin, without exaggeration.

It was a huge motivation.

Not to mention the fact that the opportunity to speak for the honor of my country has always been very important to me.

This is a crazy responsibility when you run not only for yourself, but also for a whole huge power.

This charges crazy, and inspires crazy.

- I can honestly say that the picture of your finish in Athens is perhaps the most beautiful thing I have seen during my work in sports journalism.

Is there a card at home?

— Hanging.

In fact, in the last 100 meters, it was in my thoughts, in my head that you just need to run, not paying attention to your opponents.

Just give it all I can.

The thought also slipped through that this is the moment of truth, which can never happen again in my life.

But when I finished, and with peripheral vision I saw that the opponent was receding into the background, my hands went up on their own, and, of course, I experienced absolute euphoria.

• AP

• © Luca Bruno

- What exactly was the distance of 800 meters more interesting for you than 400?

- For many, 800 meters is a distance where you have to endure longer.

For me, this is primarily a tactic.

On the four hundred, where everyone runs along their own path, there is no such competitive struggle.

And here you are running side by side with rivals.

Much more interesting.

And now I like to watch eight hundred more.

At 400 m I was rooting for Savely Savlukov, I wanted him to run fast.

And at 800 m I watched the behavior of the guys, how each of them psychologically approaches the starts.

You were sitting next to me, you heard for sure that I named the top three even before the start?

He said that Konstantin Tolokonnikov would be the first, Konstantin Kholmogorov the second, Nikolai Verbitsky the third.

You could see it in the guys.

Who was not worried at all, and was confident in himself - this is Tolokonnikov.

He even fell behind the main group when they were led to the start.

Walked quietly, drank some water.

Kholmogorov was in a hurry, resting on the guys who were walking in front of him.

Verbitsky was also constantly twitching.

Although physically they are all about the same.

Well, maybe Verbitsky is a little worse.  

- Did you expect record seconds from Savlukov at a distance of 400 meters?

- Purely my opinion - Savely is still a young head.

Sergey Alexandrovich Klevtsov finds some motivation for him in the form of a result.

And he is physically, perhaps, ready to run from 45 seconds already this season.

But before the record of Viktor Markin, he still needs to gain some kind of training base.

He could get out of them if he built the run tactically competently.

But for this it was necessary to work out all 400 meters at a good even pace, to find for myself this “golden mean” of high average speed.

This is my opinion, as a person who successfully ran 800 meters just due to even running.

You just need to run 400 a little faster.

- Of those who are performing now, apart from the already recognized luminaries, who is the most interesting for you?

“Probably all the guys.

But I'm more looking forward to the moment when the young get to a high international level.

Until they just don't know what it is.

It is one thing to swim in a river, and another thing to dive into the ocean.

These are completely different things.

— Oksana Chusovitina, who has been specializing in the vault for 30 years and is preparing for the ninth Olympics, once said that the key to success in this type of all-around is the ability to run fast.

But she stressed that this skill is not given to everyone.

I know that in swimming there is a concept that a person “does not swim”.

Does it happen that a person "does not run"?

- No, I don't remember that.

It’s just that everyone does it in their own way, according to a certain tactic, or the data that they have.

Someone runs at the expense of endurance, someone - speed, speed endurance.

Someone, let's say, is a tempo athlete, and in this case, a person can simply crush a faster athlete.

In this case, no amount of agility will help him at the finish line.

Well, if he is not ready for absolutely crazy results.

- Is Usain Bolt an incomprehensible phenomenon of an alien order or can it be decomposed into components?

- In my opinion, he just has all the qualities that a sprinter should have.

He is a tall athlete, and not all guys of such a warehouse are given such crazy speed qualities.

That is, he accelerates for a long time and then, due to the frequency and power of his step, he leaves everyone at the finish line.

This is great.

Such people can be born once in 100-200 years.

- Have there been people in the history of athletics that you looked at and did not understand how you can do what they are?

“When I was young, a lot of people seemed like that.

But when I plunged into the world elite and saw how people work, everything fell into place.

Almost all.

- What didn't work?

- What Armand Duplantis is doing now in pole vault is a tower.

It's fantastic, to cope with yourself physically and mentally, turn off your head, not be afraid of anything, and so control your body acrobatically.

This is no less cool than Bolt in the sprint.

And it is clear that the Swede is able to jump even higher. 

- Running, throwing and jumping for an outside spectator are completely different, and somewhere even incompatible disciplines.

Do you feel this division within the team?

- During the training process, and, in a sense, competitive in the sectors - yes.

But when people go as a single team to a major tournament, everything is completely different there.

Everyone cheers for each other, no matter what discipline you have.

In 2019, we went to the World Championships in Doha, and I myself witnessed how the senior throwing coach Vadim Khersontsev went to watch the marathon runners with pleasure.

- Have you ever run a marathon?

- Never.

And I probably never will.

Half marathon, it was the case, he ran.

Although the longest distance was in Cyprus, when he went to run cross-country and got lost.

Overcame 37 kilometers.

I remember your story well.

I asked because I know that almost every skier and biathlete is obsessed with the dream of running a marathon.

- I never had a goal, by all means, to complete the marathon distance, honestly.

All his life he was a supporter of not overcoming himself, but running for pleasure.

And I recommend it to everyone who does it.

I enjoyed the 800 meters, the 10 km cross.

Until now, every morning I run 10 kilometers, thus charging myself with energy for the whole day.

I like it.