Daria Yarzutkina: I do not rule out a possibility of participating in the 2013 Universiade 10.07.2010

The Polish and Swiss sportsmen will fight for the men’s gold and the German and Russian teams will struggle for the women’s title. Daria Yarzutkina from Moscow Institute of Business and Law gave an interview before the final match.

- Daria, you are often referred to as a Muscovite in news but as far as I know you were born in Obninsk and still live there, is that so?
- True. I come from Obninsk. The media call me a Muscovite because I study at Moscow University.

- Honorary President of the Russian Volleyball Federation Valentin Zhukov mentioned that it was thanks to your father that beach volleyball had survived in Obninsk.
- In some respects yes. At his time my father Vasily Vasilyevich played in the teams of Smolensk, Kaliningrad. As for Obninsk it had its own volleyball team formed a few times. First it played in the Major A-league but later on it disbanded. Next time it was founded again on the basis of our children’s and youth sports school named after Savin and advanced to the major B-league. At that time beach volleyball started to develop and now it’s has come to a decent level.

- Your last name is rare enough. Though I know another Yarzutkina – Nina Yarzutkina, player of the Tulitsa team.
- It’s my aunt. She played not only in the Tula team, but also in Zarechye from Odintsovo and in Turkey.

- Hold on. Nina is about 26. Isn’t she too young to be your aunt?
- Yes (laughs), she is only four years older than my niece. What can I say? It just happened.

- Your father is a volleyball player, your aunt is a volleyball player, now I see that you had no choice in your childhood.
- No, on the contrary. By the way my mother played volleyball too and my younger brother does beach volleyball. Well, my parents stood against my will to go in for sports, they even sent me to music school, in piano class. But they could do nothing with me as I couldn’t resist my genes (laughs).

- You’ve mentioned that your children’s and youth sports school was named after Savin, a great volleyball player of CSKA and of the USSR national team. What does he have to do with Obninsk?
- Savin was making his first steps in volleyball in our city as well as another player of the USSR national team Yaroslav Antonov (former player of the Dinamo and CSKA teams).

- What is your native town known for? As far as I know it’s connected with science.
- Yes, my city is the first Science Town of Russia. As they say it’s the town of atoms for peace. It was off limits to foreigners before but now all the prohibitions are lifted.

- Beach volley originated in the USA, on the beaches of California. It stands to reason, there is the Pacific. And where did beach volleyball start in Obninsk?
- There is the Protva river in Obninsk. But beach volleyball does not depend on the fact whether there is a beach or not. A beach volleyball stadium has been built near the sports school in Obninsk.

- Let’s talk about your partner. Is your friend Victoria Rastykus from Obninsk as well?
- No, she was born in Belgorod, where she started to do beach volleyball. But little by little beach volleyball came to nothing as well as the women’s volleyball team.

- Daria, let me see. A few of my previous partners in conversation stated that Belgorod was one of those cities that combined successfully both indoor and beach volleyball.
- Well, it used to. I cannot say for sure but the women’s volleyball team came to naught there. Only the men’s Lokomotiv-Belogorye team survived. As for Victoria she moved to Obninsk, entered Moscow Institute of Business and Law and we started to play together in both student and professional championships. Thus we have been staying in Kazan for more than a week already because we took part in the first round of the Russian national tour.

- What can you say about your student championship rivals?
- The main difference between the Russian participants and foreign fellow-students is that we do sports and study at some university in between. As for foreign students education is their priority, they do sports at pleasure.

-What year are you in?
- I’m in my fifth year and I’m an extramural student. I have one year left to sweat away at my textebooks.

- What a pity. Does that mean that you will not take part in the 2013 Universiade in Kazan?
- Well, I can study for a second university degree you know (laughs). Trust me I loved the tournament organization and I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of participating in the 2013 Universiade. Everything is awesome! Even the weather. I liked today’s 36 degree weather more than yesterday’s rain (July 8). And I like your sand. It’s heavy, real beach sand.

Jaudat Abdullin, special correspondent of press-center
VII European Universities Beach Volleyball Championship