Set the example

Anastasia Prokopenko is preparing to compete for awards in the final of the Pavel Lednev Cup, which will be held from August 2nd to August 3rd in Moscow

Anastasia Prokopenko won the third stage of the Pavel Lednev Cup in modern pentathlon, held in Minsk in early July. The bronze medallist of the Olympic Games, five-time world champion was third, and went to the distance with a delay of 20 seconds from the leader Irina Prosentsova before the final type of the programme — a laser-run.  To reach the first position, Anastasia needed only one lap and one entry to the shooting zone. After them, she got away from all her competitors.

Anastasia Prokopenko with her husband Mikhail Prokopenko

— Anyway, I’m happy with how it turned out. Although this year the coaches suggested that I reduce the competitive load and change the approach to training, I gained a fairly good form. But there are some nuances and certain imperfections, so there is something to work on further. — Have you thought about ending your career after the Tokyo Olympics?
— No. If, perhaps, family circumstances had developed differently and we, for example, were expecting a third child, I would think about it. But destiny had other plans for me. So I’m in business. I still want to spur the girls from our team so that they become even stronger. Yes, and they, as far as I can see, want it too. Those who ran rather slowly began to pay more attention to their training — someone is losing weight, someone is focusing on general physical training, special exercises and training in the gym. They realise that they need more than just running for the development of speed. I try to help and explain. 
— Was the decision to continue your career influenced by the fact that there was much less time left before the Olympics in Paris than the standard four years between the Games?
— Maybe yes. After all, it turned out like this: a year of rest, a year and a half of qualifying and the Olympic Games. This really motivated me to continue.
— Amid this fact, was the exclusion of our team from international competitions painful for you personally?
— Not in the least. The Pavel Lednev Cup was organised very quickly, in which three world champions are competing right now: Russian Gulnaz Gubaydullina won the championship in 2017, me in 2018 and 2021, Olga Silkina in 2019. In recent years, we have not given a single World Championship to our rivals! Indeed, Olympic medallists compete at international tournaments, but I believe that at the World Championships the competition is higher than at the Olympic Games, because we go through those stages in which 96 people compete! Only the strongest advance to the finals. So at the Pavel Lednev Cup, it’s worth it to rival the girls who always motivate you and make you get better. We become even stronger, charged and united. 
— The Prokopenko — Silkina — Prosentsova trio still remains almost unchallenged to other athletes in our country. What can you say about your closest pursuers?
— We have many worthy girls. For example, Masha Gnedchik was on the highest step of the podium in the team event along with me and Irina Prosentsova. Yekaterina Sukora began to work very seriously on her training. There are other considerable athletes. So far they have only one kind, but if we manage to improve everything slowly, we will have a very strong team, one of the best in Europe.
— The Pavel Lednev Cup is held in the traditional format — with show jumping in the programme. This events is to some extent could be considered a lottery: horses are determined by draft, there is very little time to prepare for a duet with them. How do you feel about the plans of the International Modern Pentathlon Union to replace show jumping with an obstacle course?

— I don’t want modern pentathlon to be changed. Also, I suppose, our sport will remain in its usual form in the CIS countries. Perhaps some other joint start of Russia and Belarus will be organised, in which the pentathlon will remain traditional. After all, if you remove show jumping from the programme, our sport will fall apart. Where, after all, to put all the horses? Release them into the forest? Before making such a serious change in the programme, one need to consider a lot of factors. But I think that we should not change the pentathlon, introduced by Pierre de Coubertin.
— An obstacle course has already been presented at test competitions in Ankara. How do you like the proposed discipline?
— I think it’s some kind of the promotion of American sports. An obstacle course and similar disciplines are very developed in the United States, they even hold various championships. If you look, the girls participating in these competitions look almost like bodybuilders! If an obstacle course is introduced into the programme of our sport, it will no longer be a pentathlon. I really hope that all countries that do not want to give up riding will come to us for competitions.
— There is very little time left before the final of the Pavel Lednev Cup…
— I plan to perform in Moscow. I will prepare, and only time will tell how everything will turn out. 


Medal after years
2018 was a special year for the pentathlon. Anastasia Prokopenko, together with Irina Prosentsova, won gold in the relay at the World Championships, which took place in Mexico City. Then she added to it another award of the highest standard in the only Olympic discipline of modern pentathlon — individual competitions. In addition, she received another medal at the end of the tournament — the bronze of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Ten years before, our athlete took fourth place at the 2008 Olympics. Years later, the doping tests of the participants of the competition were rechecked, and the anabolic steroid Oral Turinabol was found in the sample of the Ukrainian Victoria Tereshchuk, who took third place. The athlete was disqualified. Accordingly, bronze went to go to Anastasia Prokopenko. Although it became known that the results of the Games would be revised back in 2016, it took a long time to resolve all issues with the redistribution of medals.
The Olympic bronze ceremony was unexpected for Anastasia Prokopenko. As the athlete herself later said, the organisers of the tournament in Mexico City asked the participants not to leave after the awarding of the World Cup winners — they promised to arrange a surprise. Anastasia was taken to the centre of the hall and presented with a well-deserved Olympic award.
“When I saw the medal, I cried, I could not hold my tears back. These are completely different emotions when you know that it is yours, that you will keep it at your home, and you know how much effort was expended to win this medal,” Anastasia shared her feelings during the interview.

Based on materials of sb.by 
Photos by Yury Mozolevsky