What do you think about your start at the international championships, at which you were disqualified?

At first I was shocked: why? How? Now I’m glad I haven’t participated, because I had a chance to rest. Many things have changed in my life during that time. 2015 was a good year for me, I realized I wanted to come back to armwrestling, to European and World Championships. I’ve won medals and I am very happy to again be in the top three in my weight category.

Has the contestant level increased since your last starts?

Of course, the level keeps growing constantly.

What was the most important event of 2015 for you?

Going to the Worlds 2015 in Malaysia and Singapore. The championships were at the highest level, I loved Malaysia. After the championships the Slovakia national team went to Singapore.

Rustam has also finished his period of disqualification. Everybody expected him to come back, but he hasn’t. What can you tell us about that?

Why hasn’t he come back? He actually has, and with a success.

Rustam started in an international high-class tournament, and won the first fight, with the guy who went on to the final in the absolute category. In the second bout all was going well, but he had a small injury and stopped the fight and backed out of the competition. This can easily happen after a few years’ break. He was invited as a special guest to the event, he may have not fought at all. His injury is now healed, he is back to training and wants to fight.

Will Rustam be back to fighting at amateur events? Is it possible?

If he gets an interesting proposition from the organizers, he will consider that, but he has no need to compete at the amateur levels, as he has won everything there was to win at the Europeans and Worlds.

How about your other brother – Ruslan. He had his last fight in 2012. Will he return to the sport?

Ruslan is still practicing, but he doesn’t want to go to tournaments.

What are your plans for 2016?

I don’t have the whole year planned out yet, but I will be preparing for the Europeans and the Worlds. As for other tournaments – we will see.

Nastiona Goncharenko