Kirill Skachkov: When you win you like everything 24.06.2010

When asked about his impression about the tournament, he said shortly,

- I think everything is OK.

- You say so because in your first matches you had two 3-0 victories? There’s no reason for being upset?

- Well, it’s also true. I can’t help but note the Championship’s great management. A nice hotel with TV in rooms and internet access, located in a ten-minute walk from the sports venue. I’ve competed in two European Championships and I’ve seen enough to compare. I mean professional ones not among universities. The Kazan Championship equals European tournaments and even exceeds some European Cup rounds.

- Actually it was thanks to… the experience of the European Super Cup of 2007 that preceded the European Universities Championship.

- So the ball’s in your court. You’ve accumulated enough experience.

- Don’t you think a TV-set is needless for you at present? Especially with the ongoing World Cup Football Championship when the tennis players stay up late supporting their national teams and don’t have enough sleep.

- No, that doesn’t bother us. Except perhaps it’s not easy to start competitions at 10 am. But we are equal here so we can’t complain.

- What do table tennis players usually blame for losing games? Football players have a whole bunch of excuses: the ball, the weather, the field, the referees, the fans.

- They are lucky. It’ much harder for us to justify our failures. We can just complain about balls and tables. Some tables have a net poorly fixed. The balls differ by softness and hardness. Besides sometimes athletes may blame air-conditioners that blow off the ball at serve. There was nothing like this in Kazan. Although when you win you like everything.

- Lets’ talk about you. Do you come from Orenburg?

- Yes, I was born here, I study in Orenburg State University. I play in Fakel-Gazprom, one of the strongest teams of the Premier League. It started from the Major League. Then the team was headed by Director General of Gazprom Orenburg Sergey Ivanov and by his deputy Viktor Andreyev. Table tennis popularity increased, big funds were allocated. And when you’ve got money, you get good results. So in this season we took the European Cup. It was for the first time in the Russian table tennis history. And I rank third-fourth among those players. Practically all the national team players come from our team: Alexey Smirnov, Fedor Kuzmin, Sergey Andriyanov and I and also one of the leading table tennis players of the world Vladimir Samsonov from Belarus. Our administration’s policy is that the team should consist of either Russian sportsmen or Russian-speaking ones. That’s why next year they want to invite Dmitry Ovcharov to the team. At present he plays for Germany: his father was in the USSR table tennis national team and moved to Germany at the end of his career. The new table tennis complex is to be built in Orenburg with its own hotel nearby.

- There is the Gazovik-OSU hockey team in your city, that plays in the Major League. There also was the Second League football team called Progress but renamed later to Gazovik. Does table tennis fade into insignificance amid them?

- On the contrary. We won the Russian Regional Championship twice and I’ve already mentioned the European Cup. Results speak for themselves.

- Do you plan to visit Kazan in 2013?

- To participate in the 2013 Universiade? I’d love to. I’m in my 4th year now but I intend to do postgraduate studies. And it will also enable me to take part in the Universiade. I liked your city as well, besides the 2013 Universiade is to be staged in Russia and I think that our athletes should take top places in national championships. This is the way to thank Kazan that welcomes us so kindly.