The Russians Alexander Lesun and Da- nil Kalimullin won a bronze medal in the men’s relay at the World Modern Pentath- lon Championship in Budapest in Sep- tember 2019. We came to visit the director of the Severnaya Sports School, two-time Olympic champion Anatoly Starostin, and asked him to evaluate the performance of school graduate Alexander Lesun in Hun- gary, and also talked about the different characters of horses and his work in the women’s police pentathlon team.
“THE CHARACTER OF A HORSE RIDER MAY NOT ALWAYS BE COMPATIBLE WITH THE NATURE OF THE HORSE”
“Pentathlon is an unpredictable sport. It is impossible to say in advance who exactly will become the champion. Nev- ertheless, a high class is a high class, and the medals of our athletes once again confirm this”, Anatoly Starostin began the conversation.
– Does everything in this sport de- pend only on the athlete?
– There must be a constant athlete- coach connection. This is an ideal case. It happens that someone prevails but most importantly, both should complement each other.
– Can an insufficiently good organi- zation of competitions affect the final result of an athlete?
– There are many different tricks and nuances. Somewhere there’s a wind, somewhere there’s a hill. Athletes of the host country have an advantage since lo- cal athletes already know the track.
– What prevents our pentathletes from always occupying a leading position?
– I repeat – our sport is very unpredict- able. One of the types of pentathlon is
horseback riding. The horse is chosen by draw. You might get a less strong horse, or a very good one. Moreover, the character of the rider may not always be compatible with the nature of the horse.
– Does the horseman get acquaint- ed with the horse before the start?
– After the drawing, you have twenty minutes so you can meet it.
– Who prepares horses for competi- tions?
– As a rule, the organizers. Horses un- dergo preliminary tests and those who performed equally become participants. Hurdle race is the most unpredictable kind of pentathlon.
– What was your riding like?
– Always different. I never hoped to get a good horse, so in training I devoted a lot of time to riding. I studied horses with a different character and physical fitness and I did it well. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, I had a horse which in the first round before me had not brought a sin- gle point. But I earned a lot of points on it and we became the second in the team championship.
“TODAY AT THE AGE OF 14 YOU WON’T BE ABLE EVEN TO PASS THE TEST”
– Let’s talk about the beginning of your sports career. Why did you choose pentathlon?
– At that time, everyone was doing dif- ferent sports. I always liked football. But it so happened that our coach moved to another city, and the team broke up, and my elder brother was already engaged in pentathlon and was already a master of sports. It was he who brought me to the sports club.
– You began to get acquainted with pentathlon at the age of 14. At what age is it best to come into this sport?
– Previously, there used to be no age limits, as it is now. Today, if you come at the age 14, you won’t even pass the test to be enrolled in a sports school. But there isawayout,youcanworkoutonapaid basis, to improve individual disciplines, but this is a difficult way.
– Did the coach immediately see your talent?
– It’s difficult to see through, you need to see a child in competitions. At first I did not win, but I constantly wanted to achieve a result – I practised seriously and a lot, and such an attitude is always im- portant for a coach.
– They say that you were small, fee- ble and came to sport for health.
– (Smiles) It is clear that one of our tasks is recovery. Moreover, modern pen- tathlon harmoniously develops health. Of course, I wanted some results, but I was not eye-catching.
“I LOVE SPORTS,
AND IT WAS NOT DIFFI- CULT FOR ME TO BECOME A MANAGER”
– You took part in the First Good- will Games, which were held in 1986 in Moscow. They were created to recon- cile the two great sports powers – the USA and the USSR after a decade of the Cold War. Did you immediately agree to participate in these competitions?
– I had no doubts, this was an interest- ing start, I took part with pleasure even in two such games – in Moscow and Seattle. They were like a performance – you could start at any event.
– Did the relationship between the two countries improve after that?
– Sport is an ambassador of friendship that always unites, therefore, of course, it was a festivity.
tathlon, and we are expecting about a hundred newcomers. This is due to the opening of new facilities, which will house all the five disciplines of modern pentathlon. Nowadays, we train fencing, swimming and other types in different lo- cations. In December it is planned to com- plete construction work, and next year we are going to train in one of the most mod- ern sports complexes in the world.
– At what age can children take up pentathlon?
– At the age of ten. There is a swim- ming department and we often recruit athletes from there .
PENTATHLON IS AN UNPREDICTABLE SPORT.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY IN ADVANCE WHO EXACTLY WILL BECOME THE CHAMPION.
– Was the training of pentathletes different in your time ?
– In my time, there was a system, there was a mechanism. The athletes moved to the result more purposefully. If an athlete finishes his career in one sport, he needs to continue working as a trainer or a func- tionary, and this does not always happen in our country. Thanks to the President of the Federation of Modern Pentathlon of Russia Vyacheslav Aminov, conditions in the regions are improving. A pentathlon department has recently been opened in Smolensk. I think in the long run there will be better training.
– After the end of your sports career, you trained the women’s national team of Russia in police pentathlon.
– I served in the border troops, and I was asked to prepare a team for the Police Games, and I was even sent on a business trip to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
– Did you work with real militiamen?
– Most of them were pentathletes, had a training in swimming.
– How easy was it for you to work?
– Easy. I also worked with athletes and they quickly learned everything. Some technical corrections and that’s it!
– Now you are head of the Sever- naya sports school. How is your organi- zation developing?
– We used to have 400 students, but now we have doubled their number. Of which 230 children are involved in pen-
– There are sports from which chil- dren are willingly taken to other sports. Do you have such practice?
– Not from any kind of sport. Swim- ming is always a priority. A swimmer is most adapted to pentathlon. If a candi- date Master of sports comes to us, it’s easier for him to get a Master in pen- tathlon than in swimming. These guys have a potential for running, they are more coordinated.
– Director of Olympic College No.1 David Musulbes takes part in the train- ing process. Do you keep an eye on the training of your school athletes?
– I always do it with pleasure and share my experience. From the very youngest age to groups of high sports mastery.
– Any feedback?
– If there weren’t any feedback, then the results would not grow, and our school is famous for its results. The latest achievement is the Rio 2016 Olympic champion Alexander Lesun. Before doing pentathlon, he had been engaged in fencing and swimming. He devotes a lot of time to training, he is always looking for something new and has a good interaction with the coach.
– How difficult is it to be a manager after a sports and coaching career?
– It goes without saying that I should have gone through a period of “rising”. But I love sports, and it was not so difficult for me.