By Vladimir Dmitriev
In Athens, the team — coached by Vladimir Shantarovich — began to show their potential, rising to the crest of the wave in Beijing. In London, they were up against much younger athletes but their experience and endurance still brought a silver medal.
Following the Bogdanovich brothers and the women’s kayak four, Beijing gold champions Roman Petrushenko and Vadim Makhnev have claimed medals at Eton. If the Olympic distance had been longer, they’d have won for sure, but lost to the young Russian team.
“We worked as hard as we could, so feel we deserve our medal,” they admitted, following a barrage of congratulations. “It’s a good end to the season. Of course, our feelings on taking the quad ‘gold’ in Beijing were quite different. As concerns the Russians’ victory, it’s certainly fair: they’ve done well all season, so nobody could catch them.”
The Belarusian pair has shown their true talent in the world of rowing and, naturally, it’s almost impossible to continue indefinitely at the top. However, they won’t rest on their oars. They explain, “We’ll choose our competitions carefully. For example, if we participate in the World Cup stages, we can check our comparable level with rivals. We may well form a new foursome, with Oleg Yurenya and Artur Litvinchuk.”
