Yaroslav Koshkarev: Semenov and I plan to play further together 06.06.2011
Team Russia’s beach volleyball player Yaroslav Koshkarev analysed the performance of the national team at the tournament in Kazan and revealed his plans for future
- The tourament in Kazan was not really successful for you, you dropped all the five matches you played. What’s happened?
- The only explanation is that my teammate Konstantin Semenov and I started to play in duo only three days prior to the tournament. We plan to play further together, so it’s just the beginning. We hope that we will avoid such a failure in future.
- So you were focused on winning in Kazan?
- The tournament in Kazan was important for us, we had a chance to qualify for the Olympics. Besides, the level of the tournament was good. But it so happened that we failed. We truly hope that we will never experience the downfall like the one we had here in Kazan.
- Have you ever had such bad weather conditions like in the match against Latvia? Did rain bring much discomfort to you?
- The rain was OK, it often happens at the tournaments like this one. But the icy wind that started to blow later… Usually I never get cold on the court, but in the match against Latvia I got frozen.
- Did you former teammate Igor Kolodinsky offer you to change beach volley for indoor volleyball?
- Indoor? They don’t invite me in Belgorod (Smiles). I do not play indoor volleyball.
- Kolodinsky was considered the best server in beach volleyball. Who has the strongest serve now in beach volley, after he left?
- It’s hard to tell, there was no measuring device here at the tournament. But Russian male players have a strong serve. I was the second or third best server in the world, Sergey Prokopiev was the same. So Russians are the best servers.
- What can you say about the tournament’s organisation. Did you like how everything was organised?
- Everything was awesome. The event’s orgaanisation, the city… Everything was cool. The organisers did everything they could.
- What is the next tournament you are to participate in? The Grand Slam in Beijing?
- Yes. We are leaving for Moscow soon, and then we fly to Beijing.
- What can you say about the changes in the formula of the Russian Beach Volleyball Championship?
- The level has increased, now we have strong teams from Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus. With a couple of pretty good duos the level of the championship only has improved. But since there were no foreign teams in the tournament’s top 3, the Russian teams are still the best.
- You top the Russian beach volleyball team rankings. Is it important for you?
- It’s a proof of the fact that I’ve been on the right path.
- Nearly a year is to go until the Olympics. Do you plan to get there in duo with Konstantin Semenov?
- Yeah. So far. We’ll try to form bonds in our performance. We need to achieve a good teamwork, we need to understand what our strong points are. The stakes are high.
- The Latvian team demonstrated a very exquisite game at the tournament and they won. Are they new heroes of beach volleyball?
- The Latvians were second best in the World series, they were third at the European Championship. Team A has been showing high results lately, Team B plays decent beach volleyball as well. They are really good at the world level. You can’t say that the Latvians are not good at beach volleyball. One the contrary, they are favourites nowadays. Well done!
