Gennady Sartynsky gave an interview to Sport Express UA in which he talked about Oleg Verniaiev’s recovery, Ukrainian team’s Olympic qualification chances and Oleg Stepko’s chances of making the Russian team.
The interview was taken right after the World Cup in Doha where Igor Radivilov took gold on both vault and rings and Sartynsky commented on that:
A: Igor is in good shape now, so it’s all natural. He again proved that he’s among the top gymnasts on these two apparatuses. In Doha, he did two vaults with a 5.6 difficulty. But in order win at Worlds and Olympics, he needs to upgrade at least one of the vaults. And he’s working on that. Regarding the rings, I really liked his performance at the last World Cup. And he upgraded the difficulty from 6.1 to 6.3. And the execution was decent.
Q: Radivilov admitted in an interview with us that it was not easy for him to deal with the disappointment he experienced at the Games in Rio. Have you had any doubts that the saying “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” applies to him as well?
A: At his first Olympics in London, Igor was a bronze medalist. The second Games went without a medal – anyone would get depressed because of it. But I was sure that he wouldn’t give up. Radivilov is a young guy, in his prime, he’s very healthy, he has his special events. So, I had no doubts that he would recover, get to his senses and keep working. Right now he’s training with a lot of inspiration and desire like the team leader should, and we have no complaints about him. God grant him luck.
Q: In Doha, Kohei Uchimura competed for the first time in this season. Was it as surprising to you as for the fans that the famous Japanese athlete didn’t qualify for any finals?
A: No, there was nothing surprising. First, there were new apparatuses there which will be used at Worlds in the fall. I think Uchimura just wanted to try them out. Second, he was after an injury. Third, he generally never went to World Cups. And he came, I repeat, just to see how he’ll compete on the new apparatuses. He’ll be completely different at World Championships, you’ll see.
Q: At what stage of recovery is Oleg Verniaiev now?
A: The doctors said he couldn’t do anything at all for three months and then there should be three months of rehabilitation. That is, he’d be allowed to start training only after six months. April the 3rd will be exactly three months since the surgery. Oleg already has started physical therapy, they’re stretching and “breaking in” his shoulder.
Q: How typical for gymnastics are the kind of leg and shoulder injuries that Verniaiev had?
A: This type of shoulder injury is very common among the gymnasts because this tiny ligament in the shoulder joint isn’t ready for twisting and turning and naturally sooner or later it loses the elasticity and tears. The recovery is pretty difficult, by the way. There’s quite a significant proportion of gymnasts who don’t recover completely after such a surgery. It will be easier with the leg, or at least we hope so.
Q: How much time a gymnast needs after half a year break to get their routines back?
A: It’s not possible to predict. It all depends on the athlete, on his internal state. If a person just adheres to what the doctors prescribe it’s one thing, but if he’s burning with desire to come back the recovery goes two times faster. Personally, I see this desire in Oleg.
Q: Petro Pahniuk represented the national team at the World Cups in Stuttgart and Chicago in the absence of Verniaiev. How did this happen that he has also ended up in the hospital?
A: In Koncha-Zaspa, where we all train, all the apparatuses stand on soft surfaces. But at competitions, the landing surface is much harder. Petya did his vault quite confidently. Even the other coaches who saw from the sidelines were surprised how this injury happened. He landed well, after all. But because it was a hard landing and his muscles were used to softer ones, his ankle moved to the side and he tore a ligament. Petya competed on two more apparatuses with an injured leg, that’s why his performance ended up being not so confident. But he still did a good job, maintained the level. He was generally in good shape. In my opinion, in England, he could have fought for medals, even for the first place. But we had to withdraw from the third World Cup. He’s being checked up now. If he will need a surgery, he’d have to rest for two-three months after that and only then he’d be able to start training. So, that means that a gymnast loses half a year.
Q: At both aforementioned competitions Pahniuk scored almost the same – 83+ points, the only difference was that at the first competition it was enough for the bronze and at the second one – to finish the top 5. Is it his realistic result for now or is he capable of more?
A: He scored 83 with mistakes. In America, he lost more than a point on floor. In Stuttgart, he had four mistakes, not large ones but still. Pahniuk is capable of scoring 85. And that’s a formidable score.
Q: Oleg Stepko who competed for Azerbaijan las quad, same as Pahniuk, will be competing for Russia according to the latest information. How did you react to this news?
A: Well, what can you do if a person is not well in the head. He just thinks that he will compete for Russian. Who will accept him to the national team? He just won’t make the team. And he’ll keep competing in internal competitions for the region where he lives. Siberia, if I’m not mistaken.
Q: Did Stepko talk to you about the possible return to Ukraine?
A: No, but I asked for the guys’ opinion on that matter. They all categorically said no.
Q: What food for thought you, as a coach, got from the performance of the Ukrainian team in Stuttgart?
A: Last year at the same competition our team didn’t even make the final. Now we competed without Verniaiev and Pahiuk. And yet, even with such a team, we showed that we can fight. We became fourth in the qualification, although we competed worse in the final and took the fifth place. We lost to Russia, Brazil, Japan and Spain and placed higher than the home team, Germany. I repeat this was while competing not with the best roster which shows that we have potential.
Q: Four representatives of Ukraine competed at the Baku World Cup. How expected was the silver of Volodymir Hrybuk? And how should we evaluate the performance of our other participants?
A: During this preparation period we put the emphasis on floor. We conditioned, tumbled, worked on sticking the landings and this bore fruit. Hrybuk took second place on floor. Andrii Sienichkin could have fought for the medals, too, if he didn’t fall from pommel horse. And the rest aren’t ready yet. In addition, the team succumbed to the floor, they were ill with a high fever for ten days. That’s why it was not easy.
Q: For many years, the continental championships took place in the spring but this year it will be at the beginning of August so that the break between Euros and World will be shorter. For you as the head coach, will it make the preparation for the main competitions of the season easier or harder?
A: It won’t be harder for sure. It’s working well for Oleg. There’s a chance that he’ll be able to recover before the Euros and will be able to compete at Worlds in Doha. But if he won’t, he’ll miss this season, then. Yes, the Olympic qualification starts at the end of this year. But the main part of it will take place next year. We have time to recover without a rush and arrive at the main competitions completely ready so that we could qualify for the Olympics.
Q: The Olympic qualifying system has undergone major changes before the Tokyo Games. Which of them you consider to be positive and which ones are negative and how these changes will affect the Ukranian team’s strategy for the 2020 spots?
A: Oleg and Igor can qualify for the Olympics even if the team won’t. But we want the team to qualify and for that, we have to prepare the young gymnasts.
Q: And what about the fact that the gymnasts who will compete at the team competition at Worlds will not be able to fight for nominative spots at World Cups?
A: Honestly, we still haven’t figured the system out completely: some say that it’s possible, some say it’s not. As far as I understand, a gymnast can’t compete for a nominative spot only if his team qualifies for the Olympics. If it doesn’t, he’ll still have the right to compete. Generally, I’m fairly calm about all these changes, my opinion is that we need to compete well, to win and then we won’t need to worry if we’ll qualify or not.
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