Kazakhstan’s Nariman Kurbanov started his post-lockdown season with a gold on pommel horse in Szombathely, his best event. He talked to the National Olympic Committee about coping with the lockdown and his plans for the next year:
“At first, the lockdown was very hard on me. You know, we are athletes and our life is constant movement. But with time, I got used to it and realized what I could use that time for. One of the most important takeaways from the lockdown for me was that working on your mental state is not less important than physical work in the gym.”
“I think that the Hungarian Gymnastics Federation did a great job – they were able to host an international competition – a World Cup, no less – during the pandemic, and it’s worth a lot. They were able to organize it at the highest level. I had been preparing for this competition for a long time, so I didn’t feel much difference in the sense that the competition was after a long break. I was ready to compete well and I didn’t care when was the last time I had competed, I just went out and did what I was supposed to do.”
Kurbanov is currently not among the top contenders for a nominative Olympic spot on pommel horse through the Apparatus World Cup Series but he still hopes to qualify this way, as it’s the only path potentially open to him:
“The [last] qualifying [Apparatus World Cup] competition will be in March in Qatar. I can say that I’m ready to compete even tomorrow but it’s good that I have three more months to improve and upgrade my routine. There’s always pressure at competitions. I just try not to focus on it, I only think about competing well. All my thoughts are about the fact that I have only one task – to raise my hand and do the best routine I can.”
While the Tokyo Olympics are a long shot for Kurbanov, there are other competitions he’s looking forward to in 2021:
“For me, like for any athlete, the Olympics are extremely important. It’s just that I try to think now that there are some other important competitions besides the Olympics next year – for example, the Asian Championships, the World Championships, the Universiade.”
“Regarding my new routine, I can tell you this – I try to upgrade my routine every time and I really like my new routine because it combines everything – beauty, difficulty, and relatively rare elements which are performed by few people in the world. I think it’s possible to win anything with it. As long I do it and do it cleanly.”
Aleksandr Kim, the head coach of the Kazakhstan’s MAG national team said that the main goals for 2021 will be for Milad Karimi to prepare well for Tokyo and for additional athletes to qualify to the Olympics via World Cups or Asian Championships:
“Our athletes are currently training in Almaty. Nariman Kurbanov, Ilyas Azizov, Dmitriy Patanin, Farukh Nabiyev, Dyas Toishybek, Alisher Toibazarov, Ilfrat Imarjanov, and Jalali Akbar were invited to the training camp. The team’s leader Milad Karimi joined us on December 15th. Even though the 2020 year started well for us, we weren’t able to achieve all the goals we set because of the pandemic. At the beginning of the year, we performed well at World Cups in Australia and Azerbaijan. But, because of the pandemic, like everyone else, we had to change our plans. Thanks to the support of the Kazakhstan’s Olympic Committee, we managed to stay in shape. Gymnasts started training after the lockdown, as thanks to the fact that they stayed in shape during the lockdown and were able to have a training camp before the competition, our athletes were among the best at the World Cup in Hungary. It’s important to remember that this is a serious achievement for the team.”
“With the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, the biggest goal for the team remains the same. Our goal is to compete well at the Olympics. The fact that the most important competition of the quad will be next year allowed Milad Karimi to improve. He’s currently making changes to his personal training plan and, from time to time, adding difficult elements to his routines. Let’s not that Milad and his personal coach Stepan Gorbachev had a training camp at Koncha-Zaspa training center in Kiev.”
“In 2021, Nariman Kurbanov will compete at a qualifying competition. I’m sure he can earn an Olympic spot. Despite the lockdown, Nariman’s routine has been significantly upgraded and his execution has improved. This year, we finished another big task – we selected the all-around participants for the Olympic-qualifying Asian Championships which were postponed to May of 2021. Specifically, Ilyas Azizov, Dmitriy Patanin, and Farukh Nabiyev were selected through a special verification competition organized by the coaches. Now they’re upgrading their routines and learning more difficult combinations.”
Photo: Emily Chan for Gymnovosti
