Run into summer

Mogilev has hosted large-scale cross-country competitions for the prizes of the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House

Track and field athletes are starting their summer season. As tradition dictates, one of the first sporting events is the four-in-one tournament, which has been held for many years with the support of the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House: Belarus Open Cup and national cross-country running competitions for the prizes from our publishing house, national relay race competitions in memory of honoured coach Aleksandr Kitsenko, and the cross-country Universiade. Mogilev once again hosted the large running event — 12 races took place on the Dubrovenka River embankment. Winners were determined not only in each of them, but also in the overall standings.

The packed programme kicked off with 1km student races. Next up were boys and girls, junior men and junior women. The winners and runners-up were overflowing with emotion: they thanked the organisers for the great trail, were delighted to have been able to show what they could do, and never tired of thanking their coaches and teammates. Yet, the organisers saved the best for last. The final event determined the winners of the Belarusian Cross Country Cup — the fastest athletes in the main distances — 3km for women and 5km for men.
The main women’s race this year took place without the participation of some leading athletes — for example, Nina Savina, who has won the cross-country event sponsored by our publishing house many times, and Olga Nemogai, who has also competed and won in it on several occasions. Nevertheless, almost forty participants gathered, and Anna Dron from Minsk was the best among them. From the very beginning, she broke away from her rivals and finished with a lead of more than three seconds. The runner admitted that she loved cross-country races and that the victory was not her first: Anna already won the main race of our competition in 2023.
The battle for victory in the men’s national cup was even more captivating. The European cross-country championship medallist and multiple winner of the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House prizes, Sergei Platonov, took the lead in the race, but Dmitry Ivanenko, the national indoor steeplechase record holder, overtook him on the third kilometre. No matter how hard rivals tried to catch Dmitry, nobody succeeded. Unlike Anna Dron, the cross-country event is not one the winner particularly enjoys. “That’s putting it mildly,” Dmitry added with a smile. Still, when the coaches asked him to compete for Mogilev Region, he could not refuse, “I am glad I managed to win. I went to the start without any illusions. It was easy to run on the flat sections, but on the hills and in the mud, I had to work hard and persevere. Sergei Platonov is not in the best shape right now, but I fully understand that a meeting with him two years ago might not have ended in my favour.”

Prize-winners in cross-country running

Sergei Platonov was not at all upset about third place (he was overtaken by Vladislav Tereshonok on the final stretch), and he had his reasons, “I have not trained for six months, as I have been focusing on coaching. I ran for three weeks before the cross-country event, but I decided to start anyway — more for the love of it. I understood that it would not be an easy walk. The guys are strong, and they put up a great fight.”
This year’s cross-country run for the prizes of the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House is the 18th for Sergei Platonov — he has been participating in our competitions since 2007. He has only lost a couple of times. This year’s bronze did not dampen the athlete’s spirits. He admitted that cross-country is one of his favourite disciplines, so he always happily takes to the starting line, especially if the event takes place in his native city of Mogilev.
In the team standings, the hosts won. Moreover, the Mogilev team claimed the main trophy of the competition — the perpetual cup established by our publishing house — for the second time in a row.
Andrei Gordeyev, the senior coach of the national athletics team (endurance events), summing up the past competitions, noted that the results in the main women’s race were quite expected. As for the men’s race, he commented in this way, “Sergei Platonov is a ‘player-coach’. Huge respect to him: he shows young athletes how dedicated he is to the sport by his own example, and he instils the same quality in his students. By the way, Sergei already has prize-winners of the national cross-country championship among his students. If we talk about the race as a whole, it could have been even more competitive if all our leading athletes had decided to start in the five-kilometre distance, rather than in the relays. Yet, the participants in the main race also showed a good fight. There are quite a few promising lads among the juniors — many athletes showed good times in the cross-country. We expect that they will soon flourish on the track as well.”
Andrei Gordeyev also remarked that the cross-country race, held with the support of our publishing house, is a very important and informative competition. It is a kind of check-up after basic training, after which athletes begin to reach competitive speeds, “It can be said to be a controlled tempo run, but in a competitive mode and festive atmosphere. It is finished, and now we continue to prepare for the summer season.”
In mid-May, athletes will compete at the Universiade, in early June — at the My Razam [We are Together] competitions in Brest, then — at the Belarus Athletics Cup, where, by the way, the selection for the Cup of the Strongest Athletes will take place.

By Tatiana Pastushenko

Photos by Andrei Sazonov