Jumpers Are Seeking Gold At The World Cup With Ukraine In Mind

Jumpers Are Seeking Gold At The World Cup With Ukraine In Mind

Eugene, Oregon (AP) — It took three days for Yaroslawa Makhchik to escape Ukraine since the beginning of the war. The high jump champion didn’t know when he could return.

During the flight, Mafuchik heard a gunshot. He once saw a bomb fall a few miles away.

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The town of Dnipro, where he was born, was far from the front lines after the invasion of Russia, but Mafuchik couldn’t shake his fears as he said goodbye to his mother, father, grandfather and sister. This may be the last time he saw them.

“It’s very difficult to say that a city is safe when a war broke out,” said Mufftic.

Four months after a terrifying journey across the border to Serbia, a 20-year-old athlete will compete in the World Championships on the other side of the world in Eugene, Oregon.

On Saturday she likes to go through the knockout round without any problems and win the gold medal on Tuesday. This is because her main opponent, three-time world champion Mariya Lasitskene, is Russian and cannot compete because of the war.

World Athletics Chairman Sebastian Coe will compete with the invaded country for the Russian delegation, given that the 22 Ukrainians in the World Cup had a hard time getting here.

Mafuchiku agrees. In a series of interviews and emails with the Associated Press, she said that her relationship with Lasitskene was always heartfelt, but not a friendship. It’s so broken that it can’t be repaired now.

“She wrote she couldn’t compete because she was Russian,” Lasitskene said in a recent open letter, criticizing Kor and Thomas Bach, chairman of the International Olympic Committee. “And our people die because they are Ukrainians. I track these murderers because they are really murderers and many athletes who support this war. I don’t want to see it. “

Some people actually support it. This is the case for a few gymnasts, including Ivan Kleak, who stood on the podium at a recent World Cup tournament, just a short walk from Ukrainian athletes and marked with a “Z” to support the war. ..

Shortly thereafter, gymnastics officials stripped Cleark’s medal and suspended him for a year.

Other Russians are also promoting peace, including tennis player Daniil Medvedev, who was expelled from Wimbledon this year, and Alex Ovechkin, who plays ice hockey at Washington Capitals.

Lasitskene, who won last year’s Olympics and won the world title three times in a row, showed compassion for the suffering of the Ukrainians.

“They are experiencing things that humans should never experience,” he wrote.

But he remembered that the expulsion of Russians from the sport did not end the war.

“On the contrary, it created something new around and in the sport, it’s impossible to contain,” he said.

After a dangerous trip to Serbia, Maftik resumed training and tried to regain his normal sensations.

His mother, sister and niece have managed to leave the country and are in Germany.

“They should go there,” he said. “We can stay in touch and they can send me things. Knowing that they are safe allows us to be a little more relaxed and focused.”

His father and grandfather stayed in Dnipro, about 400 kilometers southeast of Kieu. Mafuchiku says it’s okay for now.

Mafuchiku, who won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year and won almost all junior levels since 2017, also won the indoor world championship.

Now he understands that his jump can achieve something more important than a medal. )

“I have found that athletics and the high jump can show the strength and strong spirit of the Ukrainian people as a whole,” he said. “I was able to show the world that I would fight to the end until I won.”

One day, Hafchik wants to take the medal home. Maybe he will be two after this Tuesday’s final.

But if so, there is no way to know when he will return or what his country will be at that time.

Mentally this is terrible and very difficult. ” “But when we win and return to life, I think we will remember this period forever.”

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