Svetlana Kudelich: "I think I could have won but I'm happy with silver"

Today, on March 7, Svetlana Kudelich finished second on 3000 metres run at the European Championships. After the race she shared her impressions with ww.noc.by

- I think I could have won but I'm happy with silver, -  said Svetlana Kudelich. - This is my first big medal. Finally! This is the second time when I put on spike shoes in Prague. Just before the tournament I've set up a national record at the Belarusian Championships in Mogilev. It was a test start but after it the president of the federation Vadim Devyatovskiy and the head coach Igor Sivodedov offered me to participate in the European Championships, persuaded me and assured that even though I didn't  practice especially for the competitions I still could do it. And I'm very grateful for supporting and believing in me. But for them I could not have gotten this medal. At the starting line I was thinking: "God, please, help", and when I crossed the finish line I said: "Thank you". I'm so happy that my dream has finally come true! Though I didn't really expect taking any medal.

- At the final lap you took the lead, was there any fear that you couldn't save it to the finish?

- I knew that it was the only possible tactics in my case. I don't say that it was difficult to run, I guess I didn't have much energy to rely on spurt. The task was not to let the competitors to catch up and run for 8.45. I was hoping to show such a result - didn't have 4 seconds to reach it. But I will try next time.

- There was a moment when you started to lose the lead, what happened?

-  The last two laps were difficult, but I pull myself together. I thought: "Oh no, this time I will take the medal!". I knew that if I fail here as I've failed in Zürich on summer, I will never forgive myself. I was going to summer European Championships 2014 to take gold, I mean that I managed to win before and after, and still I was very disappointed to take 4th place. But I think I've earned this medal and I'm very glad. From now on I am going to train even harder. I want to say thank you to my coach Igor Zhavoronok and hello to all the fans in Belarus.

Anastasia Marynina, Prague
Photos by NOC of Belarus.

Translated by Alexey Sokolov, the student of the 4th year of Interpreting and translation’s school, MSLU.