Daria Kuznetsova & Sergey Timchenko : Classic and Battle European Champions 2014

Here are two Russian prodigies; the current world number one, Daria Kuznetsova, won the European Championship  for the 3rd time in the row in both Classic and Battle freestyle disciplines; the fresh world number one, Sergey was incredibly improving all along the year getting the gold at the European Championships in both freestyle disciplines as well. Here is an interview with both of them, after their victory at the European Championships and before the World Championships 2014.

Daria Kuznetsova

P.S. It is the third year in the row that you get a double victory in the Europe Championships. What does it feel like to be 6 times European Champion ?

D.K. I am very happy to get the Europe Champion title again but i didn't expect this at all. This is a very high result for me, which means that all my training is worth it.

P.S. Are you satisfied with your EFSC performance? And what do you want to improve for the WFSC?

D.K. Unfortunately, not everything passed good in the classic; i didn't succeed some of my tricks. I made few mistakes, which i didn't do in the training time. I was very nervous before the classic, because it was my new run, which i tried for the first time.

For the World Championships i will try to improve my classic run and to make it more calm. I am quite happy with my battle performance. It's always easier to compete in the battle that in the classic for me. I am more confident and i am making less mistakes

P.S. What are your personal goals for the WFSC 2014? Will you train even more before the WFSC 2014 ?

D.K. The main goal for me - it's to make a clean performance for both disciplines : Classic and Batlle; to land all my tricks and have good results. To do this, i have to train a lot.

Time is always short. It's not so easy to train and to study at the same time. Therefore, the time I spend for training is always about the same. I train 5-6 days a week for 2-3 hours. Of course for the World Championships i will train even more. Perhaps, during the autumn school holidays i will have some more time for skating.

P.S. Do you have new tricks in preparation for the WFSC ?

D.K. Probably, i will keep the same tricks for the World Championships, i will just work on improving them. I would like to try the Back Christie, but it's not really stable element for me, although i still have one month before the World Championships. If it is not enough to make it good, I will work on it for the next season.

Sergey Timchenko

P.S. For the last 4 events you took part, you got double victories for each competition. Let's mention that it was the biggest events, including Battle Warsaw, Rollerclub Cup, Shanghai Slalom Open and EFSC 2014. After getting the Russian Champion title in the Battle category, you became a double European Champion. How does it feel like to become European Champion in the Classic and Battle categories?

S.T. I was very happy when I was standing on the podium. In Busto I was more nervous than usual. The European Championship gathered the best European skaters and I knew that it would be a difficult competition. Fortunately, thanks to the support of my family and my friends I managed to calm down and show excellent results in both classic and battle disciplines.

P.S. Are you satisfied with your EFSC performance? And what do you want to improve for the WFSC?

S.T. All in all, I am satisfied with my performance. I am a little upset to loose the balance at the end of my classic run, which cost me a penalty. For me it was more difficult to compete in the battle. The warm-up area was not big enough so it was hard to work on the tricks during the training time before the runs. In the World Championship i will try to perfome my classic run cleaner and probably to show something new in the battle.

P.S. In the past three years, the World Champion titles in the Classic and the battle categories went always to China and Korea. What is your forecast for the WFSC 2014? What are your personal goals for the WFSC 2014?

S.T. I know, the winner will be the one who will be prepared the best. It's hard to predict it will be a skater from Europe or Asia, we will see... After Shanghai Slalom Open, we realized that it's possible to compete at the same level with Asian skaters. The level of European skaters extremely increased during the last season. My goal for the World Championships in Paris is to perform my runs well and to manage to land all my tricks.