Doha: After a dispiriting fallow period stretching back more than a decade, the Ukrainian women’s team are once again talking finals and even medals in the final run-up to the 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, starting in Doha (QAT) today.
“It is much better for us that Oleg has come back, Gymnastics in Ukraine is getting better,” Diana Varinska says, referencing world renowned coach Oleg Ostapenko who returned to take charge of the Ukrainian women’s team in October 2017, after 16 years away.
Ostapenko had left his position as national head coach of the women’s team in 2001, going on to ply his trade in Brazil, Russia and Belarus. Results improving markedly in each, particularly in Brazil, with the women’s team qualifying for two Olympic Games and winning three individual World Championship medals during his seven-year stint.
“In Brazil it was not so hard, the sun was out,” Ostapenko laughs. “But I am enjoying being back in the motherland. I was sad every time I had to leave. It’s much better to be back in Ukraine.”
Aside from Varinska’s success in Montreal, Ostapenko has also helped steer her to three World Challenge Cup titles this year, while the team’s fifth place in Glasgow in August was their highest finish at a European Championships in almost 10 years.
On top of all this, 15-year-old Anastasiia Bachynska won bronze medals in the All-around and on the Floor at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG). “It is getting better,” Ostapenko admits cautiously. “Diana is one of the best. She does have problems with some apparatus but if she keeps working she can do the All-around and take some medals.
“And for sure Bachynska is a good sign. We hope she will be here to help our team next year. She has good potential.”
The squad still has some way to go to match the country’s golden period.
When Ostapenko was last in charge, the magical Lilia Podkopayeva was crowned the All-around and Floor champion and won the silver medal in Balance Beam at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.
The team finished fifth that year and repeated the feat four years later at the Sydney Games.
