Anton Hanczaryk is a young, promising Belarussian fighter. Being a candidate for Master of Sports, he takes on the strongest guys all over Belarus. Anton hasn’t yet been to the international championships, but that’s about to change.

Anton saw armwrestling first on TV, watching Eurosport. It struck him as a very dynamic and spectacular sport. But that might have been it for him, had it not been for an armwrestling banner in a nearby gym. Anton always wanted to be strong and he thought that armwrestling might help him with that. My first training was in January – recalls Anton. – I had my first tournament in March – Belarussian juniors championships. I’ve lost in both hands. My opponents were way stronger and more experienced than me. But I make no excuses – that failure spurred me on to train harder.

Anton’s first coach was Oleg Leshko, who designed a training program for him. When Anton qualified for Master of Sports, Kiril Gusalov, European champion of armwrestling, became his coach.

My first trainings weren’t well constructed – says Anton. – I paid no attention to number of sets and reps, this came later, with my growing respect for the sport. If I could turn back time, I’d do it all differently! Now I work out three times a week, increasing the number of exercises before a tournament. I do about five exercises per training. Recently I’ve been doing more strength exercises, but I don’t forget special techniques either. The closer to a tournament, the more technical stuff I do.

Anton has found many exercises in the Internet, and he still does find new ones. He carefully selects his exercises and their uses. As for diet, in Anton’s opinion an armwrestler doesn’t need a strict one. A sportsman eats five or six times a day, not counting the quantity of nutrients. Anton also uses supplements.

Supplements are important in preparation for contests and in intensive training periods – says Anton.

– The most common supplements are proteins, creatine, amino acids and BCAA, L-glutamine and preparations containing glucosamine and hodroitine. However, arginine is not always recommended.

Anton hasn’t had a chance to compete internationally yet. He’s had plans to start in last year’s European championships, but he had problems getting a visa and he had to drop those plans. This year he is planning to start in junior category in the world championships. Anton is certain that training hard is the key to success. And if you have good genes to boot, you can beat any obstacles – but not all at once.

Victories are always a nice memory – says Anton. –It’s sad to lose, but upon reflection it’s all for the best. Failures give me an impulse to keep trying harder.

Like John Brzenk, Khadzhimurat Zoloev, Artem Taynov and the Belarussian Dmitrij Shmykov - Anton is pushing forward, reaching new peaks. He keeps observing the armwrestling world to always be up to date.

Nemiroff World Cup, A1, TOP16 – these are the projects I keep waiting for – says Anton. – I like to keep up to date, it’s an important part of training.

Belarussian armwrestling is lacking funds, in Anton’s opinion. There are not tournaments with cash prizes, and usually those are the only ones that TV wants to show; many people don’t know what armwrestling actually is. The other problem is the Belarussian system of ranking fighters by their summary score in both arms.
I think this system is unfair – says Anton. – Many sportsmen have injuries or other reasons to fight with one arm only. Why should they be treated worse than others? If a fighter can win in one arm, but has no chance to win any prizes – is that fair?

Indeed, Belarussian armwrestling presents many difficulties to overcome. Only the strongest get the prize. This year Anton Hanczaryk will do his best to have his name on the winners’ list of the world championships. And he has every chance to do that!

Artur Grigorian