Got even higher

Our female volleyball players have worked for all failed world championships in game top sports

The ball was taken, it was lifted, but the position for the attack did not seem ideal. Katya Gamova had no time to think, she had to decide right now, which means taking risks. One point separated from victory at the World Cup, five points from defeat, in ...

The ball was taken, it was lifted, but the position for the attack did not seem ideal. Katya Gamova had no time to think, she had to decide right now, which means taking risks. One point separated from victory at the World Championship, five points from defeat, everything happens in women's volleyball, but Katya waved her incredible magic pen, the ball on the side of the Brazilians did not stick into the floor, but hit the right place.

People did not jump out into the streets, there was no fraternization, and there were no fireworks, which was a striking difference from the hockey and football euphoria in May or June 2008. The victory of Russian volleyball players in Japan was probably worth no less a splash of emotions, but Moscow, against the backdrop of a cold wind with rain, met her with restraint, as, indeed, the whole of Russia (Peter lit it, but on a different occasion). And the moment was amazing, wonderful and rare, which had not happened for a long time.

All the world championships in the gaming top-types turned out to be completely failed, only hockey players returned with medals, and their Cologne silver was with a noticeable bitterness. And then fundamental defeats followed, up to the seventh place of the women's basketball team in the strongest composition. And the team, which was left without medals at the European Championship a year ago, had to work for everyone.

For two weeks the morning began with volleyball, with live coverage from Japan. The serenity of the tournament pace of Kuzyutkin's wards seemed deceptive, there were only enough difficulties for one game in each promising to be a difficult match, the game looked quite simple, the efforts of two iron fighters Gamova and Sokolova were enough in the attack, and when Kosheleva joined them, it was just right for the rivals to throw on pad towel. The Serbian national team, which was not at all weak, was simply destroyed, an almost hopelessly lost set was snatched from the “bronze” Polish team of the last year, the desperate housewives were also allowed a little. Japan, by the way, could have lost without any damage (the Russians still went to the semi-finals from the first place), but our team did not take care of its strength.

The Tokyo audience was cheering against the Russians closer to the semi-finals. But this did not cause much concern, another thing is what will happen if Gamova is “grabbed”, Sokolova’s serve goes wrong, the young setter Startsev is confused and it’s not the game that will have to be saved through “I can’t”, but the whole match? The game of the Olympic champions - the Brazilians looked more harmonious, and the silver medalists of Beijing, the Americans, were slightly inferior (and Hugh McCutchen's wards defended themselves incomparably).

The World Cup is clearly divided into two parts - nine preliminary matches and two remaining finals. Until Saturday, our team was the calmest. In general, for the first time I saw our women's team like this - at least emotions, all the drive inside, zero external effects (Kuzyutkin even mentioned that his team's volleyball cannot be called beautiful, but it can be called smart). In the final bullet, however, drive was indispensable. But could a 62-year-old provincial who, over the years of his coaching career, have not come close to such heights, have been able to start a team in an extreme situation?

... Kuzyutkin appeared in the national team "out of nowhere" and out of complete hopelessness. So in the absence of other options, you hope for an old jacket forgotten somewhere in the bowels of the closet - what if it will fit again? The appointment of Vladimir Ivanovich took place in February last year, when his program by four votes outperformed the program of the only competitor, the head coach of the championship club Zarechye-Odintsovo, Roman Pankov, a younger and much more successful specialist.

The national team after the Beijing failure and the resignation of the Italian specialist Giovanni Caprara was in a disassembled state. From Kuzyutkin more than to establish a training process, to pull up the young, if possible not to fail and somehow survive the troubled times, and they did not demand. With that, they signed a contract - until the World Championships in Tokyo, regardless of the intermediate result at the European Championships. Everyone understood that the case was temporarily hopeless.

"Suicide" at that time coached the worst team in the top division - Balakovo NPP. The track record of previous years could hardly be called successful either: in Nizhnevartovsk and Yaroslavl with men's teams, in Chelyabinsk and Belgorod with women's teams, Vladimir Ivanovich was not very lucky. The combat men's Uralenergomash was long forgotten in Soviet times, and almost ten years of work in Turkey put Kuzyutkin in the category of figures from the last century. And it's not that the volleyball federation saw some undiscovered potential in the coach - most likely, in the timelessness, the Sverdlovsk resident seemed the most consistent figure. The apparent absence of any kind of charisma (this is after such monsters as Nikolai Karpol and Giovanni Caprara) was also “in the subject”: anyone can work for a couple of years, and another one will be selected closer to London.

But Kuzyutkin was not so simple. Having failed the European Championship in Poland, he did not raise an eyebrow. To be honest, there was no one to win with: almost all the stars left the team for various reasons. The head coach built the new national team around the most talented and experienced Natalia Safronova, one of the few who remained. But at the end of 2009, a tragedy happened to Natasha - a stroke, 18 days of coma, months on the verge of life and death with a difficult process of treatment and recovery. In Japan, after each match, the first person the girls remembered and to whom they conveyed their greetings and wishes was Natasha Safronova ...

Kuzyutkin did not complain, did not make broad statements and did not make promises. He worked and forced to work everyone who fell into the orbit of the Russian team. He was merciless and even cruel in checks and dropouts, he loaded his wards with two workouts a day even before flying to Japan, he made extraordinary decisions and did not back down from his own. The national team harnessed itself to plowing and already looked competitive by the summer, successfully qualifying for the Grand Prix and winning the control tournament.

But the main thing is that he agreed with Ekaterina Gamova and Lyubov Sokolova, who, after the 2008 Olympics, they no longer looked forward to seeing in the national team. He explained everything simply: “Their emotions subsided, but ambitions and unsatisfied ambition remained.” Kuzyutkin understood that it was possible to perform well in Japan, but without Lyuba and Katya, he would have to forget about medal prospects.

Returning stars worked on a par with everyone else. “You can’t win a serious tournament on skill alone. Two matches is possible. Everything won't work." In Japan, it was necessary to win two, and nine more before that.

... The US team in the semi-finals passed in the same breath. With an almost perfect game and one single glitch. The Americans did everything right: they pulled out incredible balls, attacked in a variety of ways, effectively took one set, but they could not resist the smart power.

Kuzyutkin avoided pathos even before the final. In the course of the championship, he was generally extremely specific, if not down to earth, defiantly boring in the comments, confirming his non-publicity and trying in every possible way to protect his girls from unnecessary worries: “Peck me as much as you like, but don’t touch them.” I felt the power of the team, but I didn’t throw hats on anyone, if I raised my voice, then at most a couple of times.

Brazilians, by the way, have never become world champions. They had a good team. You can even say - outstanding and hungry for victories. Everything was under Sheila Castro and her friends - the flexibility of strength, the brilliance of reaction, flight perfection. They led the games twice and saved their strength twice in hopeless endings, they were sure that they would not falter.

And ours fought to the end. Maybe this played a decisive role in the tie-break, especially in its crazy and fast-paced ending. Gamova had 35 successful attacks in the final - an unthinkable number for a match of this level. The best player of the World Cup definitely should not have had the strength for the last blow, but they were enough. Serve, by the way, Sokolova, and after a timid attack by a rival, she also took the ball. Lyuba was not awarded with an individual award (the title of the best attacking player went to Tatyana Kosheleva), but what is a personal prize compared to a team triumph? Moreover, the only Russian in this poor year for victories.

The most dashing performances were given by Japan with Brazil in the semi-finals and Japan with the USA in the match for third place. The main rivals of the Russians, representing other continents, generally looked more spectacular, more temperamental, brighter - except that they did not dance after successful attacks, but how they hugged! The last hugs, however, remained with Katya Gamova and her friends. They threw out all the emotions after the victory - the second in a row.

The famous coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes would later say that the Russians "played too hard for us." This was the highest compliment to Vladimir Kuzyutkin, a gray-haired debutant, who barely had time to wipe his face wet from tears before the award.

Firsthand

Ekaterina Gamova , two-time world champion, MVP of the 2010 World Cup:

- We tried not to think about mistakes, concentrated on our own game, followed the instructions of the coach, and in the end it helped us win. Everyone understood that there would be no other chance - either now or never. And we are glad that we became world champions twice, we proved that our victory four years ago was not an accident, as many might think. And we dedicate our victory to Natasha Safronova. Natalie, know that everything will be fine with us, you are not alone! Your victory over the disease will be the most desired victory for all of us. We are happy that we have done a good job, it was not in vain that we have been fruitfully preparing for six months. Of course, fatigue has accumulated, plus a ten-hour flight. But we have no time to rest, in five days the championship of Russia begins.

Vladimir Kuzyutkin , head coach of the women's volleyball team:

- It seems that everything has already been expressed, congratulations have been accepted, we have talked about this victory a thousand times. Emotions are still running high. This success means a lot to all of us. This is a duty fulfilled, because so many fans were waiting for our victory. And we are happy that we finally gave people a holiday. We did everything we could for this.

Stanislav Shevchenko , President of the All-Russian Volleyball Federation:

- It is possible to evaluate the success that our girls have achieved only with delightful epithets. We have accumulated a lot of debts to the fans, we will try to pay them back. I am glad for the girls, and for the country that followed and worried, I am glad that we were able to justify their hope. And let's hope that this victory is not the last.