Igor Radivilov competed on rings and vault for the Ukrainian team in the qualifications at the World Championships today. On rings, he scored 13.866 which placed him well out of the final, but he is very likely to make the vault final after scoring 14.566 average for his two vaults. After four subdivisions, he sits in third place, behind Artur Davtyan (ARM) and Gabriel Burtanete (ROU).
Ukraine started on parallel bars which meant Radivilov had to wait four rotations before he could finally compete on his two events. He said both the wait for his events and the very short break between them were a challenge for him:
“It was a bit difficult. There’s only one team on each apparatus here, so it went fast, I had to recover fast after rings. Such a fast recovery is hard for me, so I felt a little bit of discomfort on vault. But I am very happy that today I managed to overcome my physical and mental condition and I hope and believe that my score will be enough to make the final.”
After the start of the war, Radivilov moved to Cottbus, Germany and stayed there until the European Championships. After Euros, he opted to go back to Ukraine and train at the national team training center in Koncha-Zaspa. He says that despite the war, gymnasts were given the best conditions possible:
“After the European Championships, I went back to Ukraine and trained at the Olympic Training Center near Kyiv. The atmosphere was great, the best conditions were created for us, so we did not experience any discomfort or fear. So, I think my preparation went quite well and I hope this competition will continue for me. After the World Championships, I go back to Kyiv and after that, I will have several competitions in Bundesliga.”
Radivilov’s wife Angelina Radivilova is currently in Koncha-Zaspa working as a coach with the junior WAG team. Radivilov says the gymnasts cannot train in the evenings due to power outages, but coaches can modify their training as the gymnasts are not preparing for any major events:
“It’s not going great there [due to the war], you could say. Nothing to boast about. The Ministry of Youth and Sports fully supports the athletes, there are meals and accommodations. The only problem for the national team right now is that we have periodical power outages, which means you can only work in the morning, because there is usually no power between four in the afternoon and seven or eighth in the evening. But we’re here right now. For those of us here, this is the main competition of the year. In Kyiv, the junior team is training, so they have slightly different goals. In general, as Angelina says, [the training time] is quite enough at this stage of preparation.”
