Aleksandra Akaeva

Age: 18 this year
Occupation: Kaliningrad
Job: student
Interests: armwrestling, athletics, tennis
Hobby: book
The most important feature in people: kindness and honesty
Inspiration: Sea
The most important thing in life: Self-development

How long have you been practicing armwrestling?
Aleksandra: I’ve been training for 7 years. At the beginning, my trainer was a woman, for 5 years. I’ve been training with a man for 2 years only and then I began to fight really well. I treat him as a father.
 

Who is your trainer?
Aleksandra: Svetlana Samolina at the beginning and now Sergey Popov.

What are your sports achievements?
Aleksandra: I won gold and silver at the European Championship in 65kg disabled class, and bronze in junior left arm class. At the World Championships I was third among juniors and first on both arms among disabled juniors. Additionally I won 2 medals (silver and gold) in disabled class. All in all 5 medals: 3 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze.

How do you train before the European Championships?
Aleksandra: I do not do anything special. I run, fight and train at the table as always. I listen to my trainer carefully. I do, what everyone does.

At every training I work on different parts of muscles: biceps, triceps, hand, fingers etc. I perform a lot of exercises using machines. I also follow statistics and watch my opponents’ abilities. I also work on my technique.

Which classes will you be taking part in, in Gdańsk?
Aleksandra: I start only in disabled class, cause I did not manage to get to senior class. Due the problems that occurred when I was born, I’m have a disabled category, however it does not disturb me in everyday life at all as it is not anything dangerous.

Have you ever been to Poland?
Aleksandra: Yes – I’ve already been to Tricity. I’ve visited Gdańsk and Sopot.

How did you like it?
Aleksandra: I do! I intend to come here more often during summer. You have a beautiful sea in Poland and old town in Gdańsk.

What do you like best in Poland? 
Aleksandra: It’s nice in Poland... clean, neat, almost .... unreal. And what’s more – cheap.

What are your future plans?
Aleksandra: This year I’ll be 18 and I’m supposed to fight in senior classes, and they are really tough. At the Russian Championships I was 6th among seniors and that’s why I can’t take part at the European Championships. I need to focus on trainings to this class to be able to win medals here.

Thank you for the interview. Good luck in Gdańsk!