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Anatoly Tishchenko, head coach of Russian men’s kayak team and former paddler himself with an Olympic medal from 1996 as well as several World Championships medals holder, talked to Canoe Sport about the season 2019 as well as hot topic – WADA decision regarding Russia.

 

First he evaluated the season 2019, “I think that the team has coped with its task well. The objective was, first and foremost, getting the Olympic quotas and we performed it on 95%. We only missed it in the 200 metres event. Pre-Olympic year is always very aggressive, because athletes are fighting for quotas.  One of the biggest surprises was a win of K4 500 metres crew Artem Kuzakhmetov, Aleksandr Sergeyev, Oleg Gusev, Vitaly Ershov at European Games in Minsk. Of course we hoped to get a medal, but we did not expect to win. One of the pleasant surprises was Maxim Spesivtsev who won third place in K1 500 metres event at World Championships.”

 

With all great results achieved this year the eyes are now set on Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, “The selection of athletes who will travel to Tokyo will be based on results in individual boat, even for K4. Despite the dissatisfaction of some athletes we felt this is the most appropriate format for the selection.”

 

But the participation of Russian athletes is now under question. “The buzz surrounding this decision began a couple of months ago, so this move was not unexpected. We cannot influence what is happening. I told the athletes that no matter what, we must prepare and just do the job. This situation does not depend on us, but canoeing will not disappear, right? So, we will continue to work as before. I'm 90% sure that Russian paddlers will go to the Olympic Games. Under the Russian flag or under neutral - that is another question,” he also said in an interview for Canoe Sport.