Bruny Surin, Allen Johnson and Natallia Dobrynska are Ambassadors to the IAAF World Indoor Championships Sopot 2014 and all were present at the traditional pre-event press conference ahead of the biggest athletics event of the year on Thursday (6).The championships start in the Polish city on Friday and continue until Sunday.The three IAAF Ambassadors will be very visible during their time in Sopot.Among their activities, they will conduct interviews with local and international media, visit local schools, provide their thoughts on the championships via various social media platforms, provide autograph sessions and be involved with the medal presentations.Below are the edited highlights of the question-and-answer session with the Ambassadors. Natallia Dobrynska (UKR)Q: Two years ago in Istanbul, you became the first woman to score more than 5000 points in the indoor pentathlon, what do you remember about that day?A: I have always been in love with the winter (indoor) championships, and in Istanbul I showed not the best result I could have done but it was still good enough for a world record.I’m now retired but if Ashton (Eaton, sitting next to her at the presss conference) sets another world record, that might persuade me to make a comeback, so I wish Ashton good luck and I hope he motivates me! Q: How do you rate the chances of your compatriot and outdoor heptathlon world champion Hanna Melnychenko?A: Actually, I support every athlete, not just from my own country as sport brings nations together and helps bring peace. Hanna is a close friend of mine and we’ve been competing together (in the past). I have no doubts Hanna will be among the medals here. Q: Can you tell us how the events in Ukraine have affected you and will it be a distraction to the Ukrainian athletes here in Sopot?A: Nobody in Ukraine at all, and in our team, wants to face war. We want to live in peace, as any person in our world. We are very thankful for all countries who have supported us in such difficult times. I hope that the destiny of Ukraine will be resolved in a diplomatic way in the nearest future. In any case, we need to distinguish sport and politics. Because of some financial problems, we couldn’t organise a traditional training camp for our athletes before this World Indoor Championships, but I believe that all difficulties we have met will just make our athletes stronger.Certainly, every athlete of our team is not indifferent to the current situation (at home in Ukraine) but we’re professionals and we should be focused on our work to represent our country in the international athletics arena at the highest level. In Sopot, we have a unique mission. Here, we’re not just athletes, we’re peace ambassadors as well. Allen Johnson (USA)Q: What did athletics mean to you when you were competing and what does it mean now that you are coaching?A: First of all, I competed for so long because I really enjoyed running. If I was physically able to compete today, I’d still be competing. Athletics provided me with a lot of friends, a lot of excitement. I got to travel the world and see different cultures and different people. Because of that, I wanted to give back and now I’m a sprint coach at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. It’s a joy for me to watch athletes improve.I couldn't compete now as a masters athlete. I've only just started lifting some weights again. If I was to run I guess I'd just be able to go below 15 seconds outdoors Q: Let’s speak about the women’s hurdles. How do you rate Sally Pearson compared to the US hurdlers?A: Back in 2012, I was with a female American hurdler, who previously won a gold medal, if you don’t know who she is then I’ll leave you to work that out. But I’d say that Sally Pearson is perfect. She has a great start, she is fast, she has great technique. We were joking that Sally would have to fall and break her leg twice to lose at the Olympics in 2012. Unfortunately, last year Sally was injured. Watching her, you could tell, I could tell, she wasn’t in her top form, but when she is, she’s probably the best hurdler I’ve ever seen in person; or one of the best because we also have Brianna Rollins. As a fan of women’s hurdling, I want to see these two go at it because the world record could be in jeopardy. Q: What about the men’s hurdles? Aries Merritt isn’t defending his title. Is there a new generation coming through in this event?A: I think so. The men’s hurdles is in a little bit of transition and I think some of the young guys are going to use these championships to establish themselves as one of the front runners, going into the outdoor season, then going on to the World Championships next year and then on to Brazil, Rio 2016. The World Indoor Championships is a great platform to start from.On paper, Pascal Martinot-Lagarde is the favourite here but, in our event, anything can happen. It’s about getting to the final and being able to deal with the pressure and with the athletes on either side of you running fast. It will be about who competes the hardest. The one who’ll make the fewest amount of mistakes will be the champion. Bruny Surin (CAN) Q: I guess your focus of attention is on the 60m, which you won twice, so who is your favourite?A: This season the young American Marvin Bracy, who ran 6.48, is the favourite. Unfortunately, France’s Jimmy Vicaut and Britain’s James Dasaolu are both injured. Personally, I thought Dasaolu could break the world record this year, after I saw his performance in Birmingham (where he ran 6.47). Q: You think Dasaolu can break Maurice Greene's world record of 6.39, which has stood since 1998?A: Yes. He has a great start. From what I saw in Birmingham last month, he ran 6.47 in his semi-final with a poor start and then 6.50 slowing down in the final. Unfortunately, he got injured but if he’d have come here in shape I think the world record would have been in jeopardy. He seems to get injured a lot, but if he can find a solution to his health problems then I wouldn’t be surprised to see him run 9.8 this summer. Q: What about the women’s 60m in Sopot?A: I think the experience of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, her fast reaction time, her great start, makes me pick her. I’m going to go for her 100 per cent. Q: And what about Canadian prospects of medals? A: I know that Ashton Eaton is a great shape, but hopefully Damian Warner will be right behind him in the heptathlon but Ashton did the right thing and married a Canadian (Brianne Theisen-Eaton). As for sprinters, Justyn Warner has already run 10.0 (10.09) twice. He can be the next Canadian to go under 10 seconds, to compete with those great athletes and to run 9.7-9.8. Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Bruny Surin, Allen Johnson and Natallia Dobrynska are Ambassadors to the IAAF World Indoor Championships Sopot 2014 and all were present at the traditional pre-event press conference ahead of the biggest athletics event of the year on Thursday (6).

IAAF Ambassadors Bruny Surin, Allen Johnson and Natallia Dobrynska face the press in Sopot

- Read on for English and French language versions of this story - La traduction française suit le texte anglaisThe IAAF has appointed Canadian sprinter Bruny Surin, US hurdler Allen Johnson and Ukrainian combined-events exponent Natallia Dobrynska as Ambassadors to the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships, which will be held in the Polish city of Sopot between 7-9 March.Each member of the trio, in addition to all of their other accolades, has an illustrious record at the World Indoor Championships.Surin won 60m gold medals in 1993 and 1995, Johnson won 60m hurdles titles in 1995, 2003 and 2004 while Dobrynska memorably won the pentathlon in 2012 with a world record total of 5013 points, the first woman to break the 5000-point barrier.“I'm very grateful for this nomination. Anytime I can get involved to help better the sport that brought me so many great memories, it's an honour, and I accepted without hesitation,” said Surin.“The World Indoor Championships were very important to my career because they demonstrated that I could compete with the best athletes in the world on one of the biggest stages in our sport,” commented Johnson.“Being the IAAF Ambassador for Sopot 2014 is a great honour for me in one hand and huge responsibility in the other. I will stand and cheer the heroes of the various nations in their historic moments. I will display the spirit of sport,” added Dobrynska.The three IAAF Ambassadors will be very visible during their time in Sopot.Among their activities, they will conduct interviews with local and international media, provide their thoughts on the championships live via various social media platforms, and be involved with the medal presentations.IAAF*****Surin, Johnson et Dobrynska nommés
Ambassadeurs de l'IAAF pour les Championnats du monde en salle 2014 L'IAAF
a nommé le sprinter canadien Bruny Surin, le spécialiste des haies américain Allen
Johnson et la championne des épreuves combinées ukrainienne Nataliya Dobrynska,
Ambassadeurs des Championnats du monde
en salle de l'IAAF 2014, qui se tiendront dans la ville polonaise de Sopot
du 7 au 9 mars.Chacun
des trois Ambassadeurs, en plus de leurs nombreux autres titres, possèdent un
palmarès des plus impressionnants aux Championnats du monde en salle. Surin
y a gagné l'or sur 60m en 1993 et 1995, Johnson le 60m haies en 1995, 2003 et
2004, tandis que Dobrynska y a remporté le pentathlon de manière mémorable en
2012 avec un record du monde de 5013 points, devenant ainsi la première femme à
franchir la barrière des 5000 points."Je
suis très reconnaissant d'avoir été nommé. Je suis toujours ravi de pouvoir
m'impliquer pour améliorer encore ce sport qui m'a donné tant de souvenirs
impérissables. C'est un véritable honneur et je n'ai pas hésité une seule
seconde avant d'accepter," a dit Surin."Les
Championnats du monde en salle ont joué un rôle très important dans ma
carrière, parce qu'ils m'ont démontré que je pouvais me mesurer aux meilleurs
athlètes du monde sur une des scènes majeures de l'athlétisme,"&nbsp; a commenté Johnson.Dobrynska
a ajouté: "Être un Ambassadeur de l'IAAF pour Sopot 2014 est pour moi à la
fois un grand honneur et une immense responsabilité. Je me réjouis à la
perspective d'être au bord de la piste pour encourager les héros des
différentes nations vivant leurs moments de gloire. Je compte bien être
l'incarnation du meilleur de l'esprit sportif. " &nbsp;Les
trois Ambassadeurs de l'IAAF seront très visibles au cours de leurs séjours à Sopot.Ils
accorderont notamment des interviews à la presse locale et internationale,
feront part de leurs opinions en direct au travers d'une variété de plateformes
des médias sociaux, et seront impliqués dans les cérémonies de remises des
médailles. IAAF

The IAAF have appointed Canadian sprinter Bruny Surin, US hurdler Allen Johnson and Ukrainian multi-events exponent Natallia Dobrynska as Ambassadors to the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships, which will be held in the Polish city of Sopot between 7-9 March.

Surin, Johnson and Dobrynska to be 2014 IAAF World Indoors Ambassadors

During a special ceremony at half time in the Dynamo Kyiv vs Illichivets football match in Kyiv on Sunday (27), 2008 Olympic Heptathlon champion Natallia Dobrynska announced her retirement from athletics.“I trained and competed here at the Olimpiyskiy stadium for many years and set my first national record here; that’s why it is very symbolic that I announced my retirement here,” said Dobrynska.The 31-year-old Ukrainian was a surprise winner of the Olympic Heptathlon title in 2008, smashing her PB by almost 350 points to take gold with 6733. She improved on that score two years later when taking the silver medal at the European Championships.She excelled indoors too and her first major medal came at the 2004 World Indoor Championships where she took silver. After European indoor bronze in 2005 and World indoor silver in 2010, she arrived at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in the form of her life and broke the World indoor record with 5013, becoming the first woman to score more than 5000 points in the Pentathlon.But just weeks later, her husband and coach Dmitriy Polyakov died suddenly of cancer. Despite the devastating set-back, Dobrynska tried to defend her Olympic title at the 2012 Games, but did not finish the Heptathlon in what became the last competition of her career.The first deputy minister of youth and sport in Ukraine Sergey Gluschenko, Ukrainian Athletics Federation president Igor Gotsul, director general of sports arenas of Ukraine Sergey Simak and young athletes from the Kyiv Sports School came to congratulate Dobrynska.IAAF vice president Sergey Bubka was away on business, but sent a video message.“Natallia has achieved many victories,” said Bubka. “I wish you every success. You are a very active woman; you are a member of the Athletes Commission for the federation, and I’m sure you’ll achieve good results in that area too.”“It’s always difficult for athletes to retire,” said Dobrynska. “You always think that you could do more. But I’d reached a point where I wasn’t able to compete as strong as before. I had the fitness and I had prepared for the World Championships in Moscow, but I lost the required fighting spirit. You should respect what you are doing.”But Dobrynska won’t be leaving the sport entirely. “I would like to do something for the development of Ukrainian sport and to be useful for my country,” she said. “Recently I was elected as the vice chair of the EOC Athletes Commission, and it opens some opportunities for me. Now I want to know more about the sport from the other side.“I can honestly say I’ve got many ideas, but first of all I’m going to go to Britain to study English,” she added. “I’m planning to go there in December for one month. It’s very important for me to speak English fluently. It’s necessary for my work in the Athletes Commission and for my future projects in Ukraine.”Dobrynska is also keen of golf, but it’s just a hobby for her. “I play golf when I’ve got time for it. But I like it very much,” she said. “Golf changed many things in my life. It is an Olympic kind of sport. If you want to reach a high level, you need to work very hard and train every day.”She is now looking forward to her new life away from the competition arena. “Sport is a great thing, but it’s good to retire early. Athletes often try to put off retirement. We are emotional and open-minded people; we treat everything in a different way. In sport, we think that everything is fair because we have a stopwatch and a tape measure and they don’t lie. We think that everything outside of sport is the same too, but that’s not always the case.“Now it’s time for me to start a new life,” she added. “I’m happy, because I can learn something new like winter sports. There are many different interesting tasks, but the main thing is the desire to do it. When I have that, I’m sure that my new life will be as interesting as my life in athletics.”Ukrainian Athletics Federation for the IAAF

2008 Olympic Heptathlon champion Dobrynska announces retirement

During a special ceremony at half time in the Dynamo Kyiv vs Illichivets football match in Kyiv on Sunday (27), 2008 Olympic Heptathlon champion Natallia Dobrynska announced her retirement from athletics.

- READ ON for English and French language versions of this story - La traduction française suit le texte anglaisWith exactly one calendar month to go before Donetsk, Ukraine stages the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships, from 10-14 July, this is the perfect moment to look back at the immense contribution athletes from this country have made to the sport.Although it is the first time that a city from Ukraine has been the host of an IAAF World Athletics Series event, the country having become independent in 1991, Ukrainian athletics success stretches back a century.Kiev staged the First All-Russian Olympiad in August 1913, with participants coming from all over what was the then Russian Empire but, in many of the athletics events, it was local athletes who shone.Turn the clock forward almost 40 years and Ukraine provided a significant proportion of the Soviet Union team that competed for the first time in the Olympic Games in 1952; and her country’s athletes started winning medals four years later in Melbourne.Ever since then, Ukraine has continued to assemble an impressive array of athletics heroes.Arguably the most notable of them all is Sergey Bubka, nowadays an IAAF Vice President but considered by most people to have few rivals as the greatest exponent in his event, the Pole Vault.Bubka won at the IAAF World Championships on six occasions and took the gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. He also broke the outdoor World record 17 times, including setting the current mark of 6.14m in 1994 and the indoor World record on 18 occasions. Alongside Bubka in the <a href="http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/hall-of-fame">IAAF Hall of Fame</a>, which sees Ukraine as the only country apart from the United States to have more than one member of the initial 24 stars of our sport that were inducted last year, is walker Vladimir Golubnichiy.Golubnichiy dominated the 20km Race Walk in a top class career lasting 20 years from the mid- 1950s to the 1970s. He set two official World records and won four Olympic Games medals, including golds in 1960 and 1968.Another famous Ukrainian athlete with two Olympic gold medals to his name is the Valery Borzov, who took a memorable 100m and 200m sprint double at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and later in life became the President of the Ukraine Athletics Federation for many years.Female athletes from Ukraine became some of the most recognizable faces in the Soviet Union team at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome with gold medals for Lyudmila Shevtsova and Vera Krepkina in the 800m and Long Jump respectively.Twenty years later, when Moscow hosted the 1980 Olympic Games, Nadyezhda Olizarenko was another Ukrainian runner to win an 800m gold medal and she did so in a phenomenal time of 1:53.43, which was a World record for almost three years and is still the second fastest time ever over two laps of the track.By the end of the decade, in the last few years of Ukrainian athletes wearing the red vest of the Soviet Union before changing to their now familiar national colours of blue and gold, Tatyana Samolenko notched up a memorable double over 1500m and 3000m at the 1987 World Championships and then won over the longer distance at the 1988 Olympic Games, before defending her World crown over 3000m in 1991.&nbsp; &nbsp;Inessa Kravets set a formidable World record in the Triple Jump when winning at the 1995 IAAF World Championships and her mark of 15.50m has not been beaten by anyone almost 18 years later. She went on to also win the Olympic gold in Atlanta the following year.In more recent times, Nataliya Dobrynska has become the heroine of Ukrainian athletics, winning the 2008 Olympic Games Heptathlon and then returning to the top of the podium last year at the IAAF World Indoor Championships where she won the Pentathlon title with a World indoor record.With such a roll call of illustrious names, Ukraine can quite rightly claim to have a special place in the history of athletics and this is an opportune moment to bring a major global event to the sport’s many aficionados in the country.IAAF À un mois de Donetsk 2013: le fier palmarès de l'athlétisme ukrainien Un mois exactement avant l'ouverture dans la ville ukrainienne de Donetsk des Championnats du monde Cadets de l'IAAF 2013 (10-14 juillet), le moment semble parfaitement indiqué pour passer en revue l'immense contribution à notre sport des athlètes de ce pays. Bien que ce soit la première fois qu'une ville ukrainienne accueille une épreuve de la Série mondiale de l'athlétisme de l'IAAF, le pays n'ayant accédé à l'indépendance qu'en 1991, les succès des athlètes de cette nation remontent à plus d'un siècle en arrière. Kiev a organisé la première Olympiade nationale russe en août 1913, rassemblant des participants issus de ce qui était alors l'Empire de Russie, mais ce sont au final surtout les athlètes locaux qui se sont illustrés au niveau des résultats. Près de quarante ans plus tard, en 1952, l'Ukraine fournissait une proportion significative de la première délégation soviétique à participer aux Jeux olympiques. Et dès l'édition suivante, à Melbourne, en 1956, les Ukrainiens ont remporté les premières médailles sous les couleurs soviétiques.Depuis lors, l'Ukraine a produit un nombre impressionnant de héros de l'athlétisme. Beaucoup avanceraient que le plus impressionnant de tous a été Sergey Bubka, aujourd'hui un vice-président de l'IAAF. Il est considéré par la plupart des observateurs comme ayant peu de rivaux pour le titre de plus grand perchiste de tous les temps. Bubka a remporté les Championnats du monde de l'IAAF à six reprises et remporté l'or aux Jeux olympiques de 1988. Il a également établi dix-sept records du monde, dont le record actuel, qui est de 6,14m - une barre franchie en 1994 - et dix-huit records du monde en salle.Le marcheur Vladimir Golubnichiy a été intronisé aux côtés de Bubka dans le Temple de la renommée de l'IAAF, où l'Ukraine est le seul pays avec les États-Unis à compter plus d'un représentant nommé l'an passé parmi ses 24 membres inauguraux.Golubnichiy a dominé le 20km marche tout au long d'une carrière au plus haut niveau qui a duré vingt ans, depuis le milieu des années 1950 jusque dans les années 1970. Il a notamment établi deux records du monde officiels et remporté quatre médailles olympiques, dont deux en or, en 1960 et 1968.Un autre athlète ukrainien célèbre qui compte deux titres olympiques à son palmarès est Valery Borzov, qui a réussi un mémorable doublé 100m/200m aux Jeux olympiques de Munich en 1972, et qui, par la suite, a officié comme président de la Fédération ukrainienne d'athlétisme pendant de nombreuses années.&nbsp;Les femmes ukrainiennes étaient parmi les sportives les plus connues de l'équipe soviétique des Jeux olympiques de Rome en 1960, avec des médailles d'or remportées par Lyudmila Shevtsova et Vera Krepkina dans, respectivement, le 800m et le saut en longueur. Vingt ans plus tard, alors que Moscou accueillait les Jeux, en 1980, l'Ukrainienne Nadyezhda Olizarenko remportait à son tour le 800m avec un temps phénoménal de 1'53"43, qui est resté le record du monde de la discipline pendant plus de trois ans, et demeure à date le second temps le plus rapide de l'histoire. Sur la fin de cette décennie, dans les dernières années pendant lesquelles les athlètes ukrainiens concouraient sous le rouge soviétique, avant donc de n'endosser le désormais très réputé bleu et or des couleurs nationales ukrainiennes, Tatyana Samolenko a réussi le doublé 1500m/3000m aux Championnats du monde de 1987, puis a triomphé sur 3000m aux Jeux olympiques de 1988, avant de défendre avec succès son titre mondial du 3000m en 1991.&nbsp;&nbsp; Inessa Kravets, elle, a établi un formidable record du monde au triple saut lors de sa victoire aux Championnats du monde de l'IAAF de 1995, et sa distance de 15,50m reste toujours insurpassée aujourd'hui, près de dix-huit ans plus tard. Elle a aussi remporté le titre olympique à Atlanta l'année suivante. Plus récemment, c'est Nataliya Dobrynska qui a endossé le rôle d'héroïne de l'athlétisme ukrainien, avec un titre olympique de l'heptathlon en 2008, puis un titre de championne du monde en salle du pentathlon remporté l'an passé avec, en prime, un nouveau record du monde. Forte d'un tel palmarès, l'Ukraine peut à juste titre se targuer d'une place spéciale dans l'histoire de l'athlétisme, et il est opportun de le rappeler alors même qu'elle s'apprête à offrir une compétition mondiale de premier plan à ses citoyens, dont un grand nombre sont de véritables passionnés d'athlétisme. IAAF

One month to go to Donetsk 2013 - Ukraine’s proud athletics history

With exactly one calendar month to go before Donetsk, Ukraine stages the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships, from 10-14 July, this is the perfect moment to look back at the immense contribution athletes from this country have made to the sport.

9 March 2012Istanbul, TurkeyIf it is possible to be an Olympic champion and remain in the shadows, that woman is Natallia Dobrynska, who was almost forgotten in the hype of the Jessica Ennis-Tatyana Chernova clash in the Pentathlon at these World Indoor Championships. If it is possible to win the gold medal at those same championships, breaking a World record* which had stood for over 20 years and notching up the first-ever score over 5000 points, and still remain in the shadows that woman might just be Natallia Dobrynska, too. Achieving personal bests in two events, solid in the other three, Dobrynska tallied 5013 points to take the gold medal ahead of Ennis’s national record 4965 and a further national record for Austra Skujyte of Lithuania of 4802. Yet when Ukraine’s Dobrynska takes to the blocks to defend her Olympic Heptathlon title this summer in London, it will still be Ennis at the centre of everyone’s attention. The British multi-eventer will carry the burden of being a gold medal favourite, perceived as one of Britain’s few hopes for the most precious medal. That will not worry Dobrynska one little bit. Asked at the medallists’ press conference whether she minded that all the attention in the Istanbul build-up focused on her rivals, she replied: "I don’t like to be a favourite. Being in the shadows is fine for me." Nor will partisan support for Ennis in London from most of the 80,000 fans in the Olympics stadium bother Dobrynska. "I will be happy," she said of that prospect. "It’s good to see your rivals supported. But I think they will be fair and be supportive of the rest of us too." Both the gold and silver medallists had a fleeting moment of panic during the competition. For Dobrynska, it came when she briefly thought there had been a false start in the first event, the 60m Hurdles. She thought of stopping. "But I saw you run out, so I kept on going," she said to Ennis at the press conference. For Ennis, the moment came seconds after she won the 800m in 2:08.09, a personal best, and saw her name briefly flash up on the scoreboard as the winner. "I saw my name up there in first position and I thought I’d won. "Then it was snatched away from me in a moment," she said of her reaction when reality sunk in. Dobrynska broke the World record which has stood at 4991 points to Irina Belova of Russia (competing for the Unified Team) since February 1992. "We were thinking of the World record," Dobrynska said. "We knew it was likely to happen because of the tough competition, and it happened today." Since winning the Olympic title, Dobrynska has seen Ennis win at the 2009 World and 2010 European championships and Chernova take the gold at the 2011 World Championships. Asked why she peaked in Olympic years, Dobrynska replied she did not know. "It is a special year, and everyone wants to be at the top then. But I’m not sure why I am at my best in Olympic years." She said she had spoken with her coach and husband, Dmytro Polyakov, who was not in Istanbul, during the competition and thanked her parents, Volodymyr and Lyubov Dobrynska, who are here to share her triumph. Ennis reflected on her competition, saying that she was not overly disappointed. "I feel I’m in a good position. I will go away and have a week’s break, but I know I can make improvements." Ennis produced personal bests in the Shot Put and 800 and said her hurdles as a great start to the competition. "I expected more in the High Jump, but having said that, it was a solid jump. But my long jump let me down a little." Skujyte said she "hoped for, but did not expect" her bronze medal. "I started with two personal bests, but my shot put was not good and I was hoping for more in the long jump." She had been worried about holding off Chernova and others in the 800, she said. "My coach told me that I had lost points in some of my strong events, so now I had to catch up some of them in an event where I am not strong." Skujyte did just that, her 2:19.99 giving her enough points to remain safely clear of Poland’s Karolina Tyminska and Chernova to take the bronze medal. Len Johnson for the IAAF *pending the usual ratification procedures

If it is possible to be an Olympic champion and remain in the shadows, that woman is Natallia Dobrynska, who was almost forgotten in the hype of the Jessica Ennis-Tatyana Chernova clash in the Pentathlon at these World Indoor Championships.

Istanbul 2012 - Dobrynska likes staying in the shadows

Olympic Heptathlon champion Natalia Dobrynska of Ukraine has been forced to withdraw from the European Indoor Championships due to illness but still hopes for success in Torino for her elder sister Viktoriya.“Unfortunately this indoor season everything was going the wrong way. Maybe that’s because I started my season preparations only in January, that is really late for me. Or probably my body has not yet recovered from the tough Olympic season… “Anyway, training was going all right, but when it was time to compete it seemed some bad luck was following me! On February1 I came to Moscow to compete in the Russian winter but just before the start caught some virus. I still did the long jump in Moscow, but of course the result was not that good… I recovered, started competing again, but about three weeks later, before the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham, I caught another virus. “It felt something like flu, for several days I had to stay in bed with high temperature, forget about trainings. Again, I still competed in Birmingham but right there in Great Britain I made a hard decision to end my indoor season and miss the European Indoors.“I think I was in really good shape, and you know, when you are peaking your shape, the immune system gets weaker, and you are much more vulnerable to various viruses. It was really a hard decision to withdraw from the European Indoors. Until the very last moment I was hoping to compete there, but now I can’t see any other way out other than to miss it. “Yes, I am feeling much better, but again, there is no sense to make my body work hard when it is still not ready for that. Being completely worn out in winter is obviously not something that I want. I believe sometimes it is wiser to miss one competition to be ready for the most important start of the season – the World Championships in Berlin.“Now I am going to relax and fully recover from the illnesses. I am thinking to go somewhere to the mountains – either Evpatoria in Ukraine, or may be somewhere abroad. This will much depend on the economic situation, as unfortunately we are still in the middle of the economic turndown.“You know, there is still some hope that my family will be represented in Torino! My sister Viktoriya became Ukrainian Indoor champion this season. Vika is also doing heptathlon, but because of the circumstances we are training separately and with different coaches. “I missed the national trials this winter, and I am very happy that Vika won it. The situation with the European Indoors is still shaky, because Vika’s result is not heading the European top lists. She still has not got any invitation, but you know, I think – if there is a slightest hope to get it, you should hope for this! “It would be like a dream if my sister could compete in Torino instead of me. I keep my fingers crossed for her.“On March 8 Ukraine as well as Russia and some other countries is celebrating the International Women’s Day – a traditional holiday when women get flowers or some presents from men.“It is my character to find something positive in everything that happens around me. This time I think: ok, unfortunately I will have to miss the European Indoors, but it means I will have a chance to spend International Women’s day at home, with my dear family. For me this day is associated of course with flowers. “One of the nice memories of my childhood is when my father on March 8 every year presented a heap of mimosas to my mother. As for me, personally I always appreciate the fact of the present itself, and do not pay much attention what flowers they are. But if to think it over, may be my favourite are wild flowers. “Now I want to use the chance and congratulate all our female readers with the coming holiday!”Natalia&nbsp;&nbsp;

Olympic Heptathlon champion Natalia Dobrynska of Ukraine has been forced to withdraw from the European Indoor Championships due to illness but still hopes for success in Torino for her elder sister Viktoriya.

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Dobrynska to miss European Indoors but still hoping for elder sister’s participation – IAAF Online Diaries