Marcel KHASANOV: “If I Make a Mistake Now, Let Them Call Me a Golden Whistler”

Police Colonel Marcel Khasanov is a very well-known personality in sports circles. Docent at the Martial Arts Department of the National Internal Affairs Ministry Academy of Ukraine, an international-category referee in sambo (unarmed self-defense), a coach who has trained a whole constellation of world and European champions — any more recommendations needed? The Day’s correspondent has visited a training session conducted by Mr. Khasanov and talked to him about wrestling, of course.

“Mr. Khasanov, the Academy sambo wrestlers’ trade mark is in high esteem far outside Ukraine. How many hours do you spend in the gym, teaching your pupils various techniques?”

“I mostly work with members of our institute’s select team and of the Ukrainian national team. On the one hand, I supervise quite mature masters and battle-hardened athletes; on the other, many of them still need, if I may say so, a jeweler’s cut. For the Academy hosts young men and women from all over Ukraine, who have achieved certain sporting results in their home towns. But to compete successfully abroad, an athlete must be well- versed in and aware of the subtleties of world sambo, as well as familiar with the way the leading wrestlers hold their bouts. It was once done brilliantly by Yaroslav Voloshchuk who took promising sambo wrestlers from equally experienced coach Nashir Sofin and molded them into Olympic, World, and European champions. Suffice it to remember such alumni of those giants as Serhiy Novikov and Serhiy Melnychenko.

“So I deal with this kind of filigree work. Of course, I also have pupils ‘purely’ of my own, such as twice European champion Vitaly Bychenko, gold and other medal winners at the world and ex-USSR junior championships Ihor Hrebenshchykov, Volodymyr Sluzhenko, Yevhen Soloviov, Valery Boboshko, and Serhiy Sushko.”

“You must be far too busy these days. For there will be in a couple of days the regular world championship in Spain. Can we expect any medals from our academicians there?”

“Most certainly. For example, now you can watch the training of our prominent masters, world champions and medal winners Svitlana Buriak, Tetiana Chorna, and Kateryna Tatarenkova. They are quite capable of winning. Please note that even extension students from this country’s other regions also come to our gymnasium. For example, Master of Sports and Tax Police Captain Oleksandr Birkovych from Uzhhorod, who has come to take his academy exams. We also train the children of academy staff and faculty. We refuse no one.”

“Sambo and judo are the two closely-related varieties of martial arts. Athletes often compete in both sports. What surprises me, though, is the fact that your pupils always come back home with awards won at the most prestigious sambo competitions, but those who opt for Japanese wrestling bite the dust.”

“I could say, of course, that judo is an Olympic sport, so competition is more fierce in it. But I think the main reason lies elsewhere. While we coaches, functionaries, referees, and athletes all live in one close-knit family (headed by First Vice President of the World Sambo Federation Oleksandr Naukhatko who enjoys great prestige and has ample organizational skills), our judo colleagues are divided. Hence their inferior results, although more funds are appropriated for this Olympic sport.”

“I think the academy allots enough money for physical training?”

“Here you’re right: all the six departments have well-equipped gymnasiums. The sport process is being constantly aided and monitored by the Academy Rector Lt. General Yaroslav Kondratiev and Vice Rectors Major General Oleksandr Gida and Colonel Yevhen Moiseyev. But it is not so easy to travel to contests. Sambo wrestlers, in particular, have to turn to such sponsors as Kiev-Page, Ukrrostkhlibinvest, PKF, AMK Ltd., etc. It is no secret that the police is also cash-strapped.”

“You were awarded, among the ten best umpires, the Golden Whistle at the latest world championship held in Kaliningrad, weren’t you?”

“I am not the last on the world umpire ranking list. It is very honorable and pleasing to be regarded as one of the best. Of course, any award obliges you very much and makes you treat yourself more critically. For once you make a mistake, somebody is sure to sneer: look, he’s blowing his golden whistle!”