"I'll crumble into a salad, but I'll get this medal."

The winter season is underway in Russian athletics, during which one of the main tournaments, the Russian Winter, took place last week. This year, it was attended not only by our and Belarusian athletes who were suspended from international competitions, but also by several foreigners from abroad. For example, South African Mondrey Barnard and Turkish record holder Mikdat Sevler, bronze medalist at last year's European Team Championships, competed in the men's 60 m hurdles at the 2025 Summer World Championships. But they were beaten by three Russians — Artem Makarenko, Semyon Manakov and Anatoly Kiselyov. In an interview with Izvestia, Kiselyov, who became the third, told what it was like to compete alongside foreign athletes, told about last year's proceedings with the Russian Anti—Doping Agency (RUSADA) and commented on the absence of star hurdler, 2015 world champion Sergey Shubenkov and the possible end of his career. Last week, the 35-year-old athlete said he would make a decision. closer to the summer season.

"Everything seems to be going well during the race, but it always just doesn't add up"

— How would you rate your performance at the Russian Winter?

— Compared to what I've been through lately, how I've prepared for the start, and how I've been recovering, I can say that I'm 92% satisfied. It was better than I could do at the moment. I did almost everything I could. Maybe I just messed up the start a little bit. But it was the emotions that our beloved foreign athletes gave me that helped me. Because they motivate us by coming to the competitions in Russia, they make us run better. I want to compete on the world stage, but it is almost impossible to prepare for this without running practice next to those foreign athletes who came to the "Russian Winter". That's why they turned me on and charged me up, even though I wasn't in the best shape possible. I spent the whole season with a time of 7.80–7.84 seconds.

— Do you mean the current winter season?

- yes. And I just realized that I couldn't get better numbers from anywhere. Because it doesn't work here, it doesn't work there. Everything seems to be going well during the race, but it always just doesn't add up. Like in a puzzle, there is no necessary element that would put everything together. I didn't have the necessary training and preparation. But in the end, I ran in 7.72 seconds at the Russian Winter. Apparently, due to my energy, insane desire, and the fact that I know how to enter the international arena. I don't know how it works, but when people come to us from abroad, it turns me on like crazy! (laughs). I'm ready to "kill" everyone and fight to the last! I love running with them — they don't know how to lose, they don't know how to give up! No matter what condition they are in, if they reach the finals, they will die on this treadmill! I just love them! When you're among them, something magical happens at that moment!

— Have you had a few such starts with foreign hurdlers?

— You can count on your fingers. Four or five. Maybe six. A small amount. Any start turns you on, and if friends from neighboring countries come, it's like fire (smiles).

— Will it be a little easier to compete at major international competitions with this practice if you get to them in the foreseeable future?

— You can safely take me on them, because I'll crumble into a salad, but I'll get you this medal! (laughs) I can be in any condition — ready, not ready, at training camps, under stress, but if I arrive, I won't salt it!

"Now the main motivation is to make money"

Track and field athlete Vladimir Nikitin — about indifference to news about possible lifting of international sanctions against Russian athletes

"I started to train fully only in November"

— You say that you have not prepared enough for this winter season. What's the reason?

"Eventually. I did not make it in time. Considering the situation that I had, I started to fully train only in November. Before that, I had been training for a very, very long time. And in the end, I only had a month and a half for them. That's not enough. And it is almost impossible to develop any speed qualities, endurance, or equipment from scratch. Everything that had been in my head for six months since the last summer start was somehow mixed up. And it had to be molded anew.

— Tell me, what kind of problems did you have between the summer and winter seasons?

— A trial that we practically won. It was unsettling. It's hard when you consider yourself fully right, you do everything to achieve your goal and do nothing forbidden, but the manufacturer has deceived you, and you are exposed as guilty. It is clear that all RUSADA rules mention that it is always the athlete's fault if he takes something. But when a manufacturer cheats you, I don't consider it the athlete's fault. At least to the extent that they tried to make me feel guilty. We fought. As a result, I received a six-month suspension. When I left, I had a couple of months left to prepare for the winter season. I threw all this into training.

— Was it hard going through all this?

— During all these trials, you emotionally die completely, not knowing how much you will be given and when the decision will be made. You spend your whole life trying to technically kill yourself in every training session. If you think that sport is life, then no. An active lifestyle is life, it's cool, it's super. And when you crumble every day in training, you die with your head and body on the treadmill, I won't say that this is life. Especially considering how professional adult athletes graduate. When you put your whole life on it, and they say to you: "Well, you're to blame, because you didn't check whether it was a dietary supplement or not, you should have given 30 thousand to have it checked." Well, I'm sorry. And when that happens... Of course, you know you're to blame. But it's a shame.

— Can we say that after missing six months, you fought off the accusations as much as possible?

— Not as much as possible, but... Unfortunately, the people who were supposed to be honest weren't honest.

"This man has done everything possible and even more for success"

— Do you miss Shubenkov, who is not performing now?

— Of course I miss you. Madly. This is no ordinary acquaintance of mine... It's hard to call him a friend — we've never talked so closely. But he's always been more than an athlete to me. He was neither a rival nor an opponent. He was something great. When you look at it, you realize that this is the greatness of Russia. You understand that this person has done everything possible and even more for success. I'm very upset that he probably won't continue his coaching career. I didn't have time to learn everything I wanted from him. I don't think it's right to hide some of your tricks in training, on the track, to hide something, to conceal, or to do special workouts that you don't show to others.

— Did Shubenkov hide it?

"He wasn't hiding it. But many athletes do this — they don't tell, they hide. But generations change. And if you haven't passed on your experience to anyone else, that experience is dying. And right now everything is difficult in our sport with preparation. Therefore, every young person tries to learn as much as possible from the older, outgoing generations. Because these are great people, like the same Shubenkov. His greatness cannot be described in words. For me, he's just a great person, a mentor. When I went to the start with him, I felt calm. I knew that everything was going to be fine.

— Sergey is currently performing in the Ice Age show. Do you think he won't return to athletics anymore?

- no.

— Even as a coach?

— And why? For what? That's a good question you're asking. He has achieved what he could achieve in athletics. Sergey cannot achieve more at the moment. Why not try yourself in a business that gives him pleasure. I am sincerely glad that he is now engaged in a business that he likes. When I'm done with athletics, I'm sure I'll go karting. It's crazy, cool, and fun. You have to do what you're sick of, what you like, what you love. You can practice one sport for a long time and painfully, but all the same, at one point you get tired of it, you burn out — this is normal.

— If, after all, the athletes return to the international stage in a year, maybe Shubenkov will have another attempt to try himself at the Olympics, where he got only once and withdrew from the start due to injury?

— You see, sooner or later everyone thinks about it. And everyone is thinking that tomorrow they will tell us that we are allowed in, and as soon as we start training (raises our voice and punches our palm), we will train three times a day and get ready! But the fact is that it takes a lot of time. At a minimum, you need to prepare physically — this is at least two training camps. At the same time, the load should be increased by thirty percent. Because the results inside Russia are not bad now. But these are not the results with which it is possible and necessary to go to the international arena. There will be completely different loads and training. It is absolutely necessary to start abroad and with foreign athletes. We need to relearn how to acclimatize to foreign startups — it's all a very long process.