Andrey Moiseev: “We must fight for medals in all events”

Modern Pentathlon European Championships starts today in Bath (United Kingdom). Andrey Moiseev, two-time Olympic champion and Head coach of the Russian Modern Pentathlon National Team, told the ROC information service about the team’s objectives for the tournament.

– We arrived in excellent spirits. All members of the team are healthy and ready to show the best results.

– Our team is almost exactly what it was at the World Championships in Berlin …

– One substitution will be made in the women’s team – Gulnaz Gubaidulina will play instead of Anna Savchenko. Apart from that, athletes that came to England are the same who played in the last World Championships in Berlin.

– What goal do you set for the team at the Continental Championships?

– Since this is a qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, our top-priority is to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Sixteen qualification spots (8 men and 8 women) will be contested in Bath. We have a strong team and we have to fight for medals in each event.

It is to be recalled that on the results of the World Cup in Berlin the Russian team already has two qualification spots in its asset – Alexander Lesun’s and Donata Rimshayte’s. A maximum of two men and two women from each country will perform at the Games in Rio.

The Russian team will be represented by:

Rimshayte, Anna Buryak, Alise Fakhrutdinova, Svetlana Lebedeva, Ekaterina Huraskina, Anna Savchenko and Gulnaz Gubaidulina;

Lesun, Ilya Frolov, Yegor Puchkarevsky, Maxim Kustov, Alexander Kukarin, Kirill Belyakov, Ilya Shugarov.

2015 European Championships offer qualification for the Olympic Games in Rio. It is necessary to finish among the top eight in the individual competitions in order to go to Brazil.

Bath will host Mixed Relay today.