Vladimir Samsonov: “I was to have reached the semifinal 20 years ago”

It is the sixth time when Samsonov competes at the Olympiad. He has never been a semifinalist. At the Games in 1996 and 2000 he occupied positions 5 and 8 respectively, at the Olympiads in 2004, 2008, 2012 he got 9^th.

Thanks to the victory over the Ukrainian-born German athlete Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Vladimir reached his first semifinal.

“I think I could have played in the semifinal 20 years ago. I was 19, when I became the participant of the Olympiad 1996 in Atlanta”, - Samsonov said after his glorious victory over the leader of the German team and club mate Dimitrij Ovtcharov.

At the I European Games Baku 2015 Ovtcharov and Samsonov met in the final, when the German prevailed our athlete. At the beginning Vladimir won two games, but later Dimitrij took the lead and won four sets successively.

Belarusian’s next opponent is Zhang Jike, the two-time Olympic champion of the London 2012. He is a serious rival, who has recently overmatched Koki Niwa.

During the game with Dimitrij our player slipped and fell down. The game was stopped, but a short time afterwards Vladimir returned to the game and defeated the opponent. He has a trauma, so he will be provided medical care.

“Now I have to refine my tactics and recover as quickly as it’s possible. I should be in the right mood and good shame by the next game”.

Text by Uladzimir Zdanovich.

Photos by Aliaksandr Semianiaka.