Nataliya Dobrynska in Talence in 2008 (© Hans van Kuijen)
Olympic heptathlon champion Natalia Dobrynska celebrated her recent award “Sportsperson of the Year” in Ukraine, recovered from illness and got back to intense training in preparation for the outdoor season.
“If you remember, in my latest diary entry I wrote that I needed rest and some time to recover from the flu. Well, as usual, there were so many plans to relax, but I ended doing some small things and being really busy! For example, I visited an orphanage in my home town Vinnitsa. I brought some presents for kids, talked to them a lot, and it was really nice.
“Another highlight of the month for me was “A Man of the Year” ceremony in “Ukraina” Palace in Kiev on March, 21. There were 16 nominations all together, for example, “A Businessman of the Year”, “An Artist of the Year”, and of course mine – “A Sportsman of the Year”. I had two competitors – an archer Viktor Ruban and Inna Osipenko-Radomskaya who competes in kayak. As they both are also Olympic champions from Beijing, I was not quite sure I was going to win! Moreover, Inna was recently honoured as a “Sportsperson of the Year” by the Ukrainian Olympic Committee, so I thought she would be the favourite. Till the very last moment I did not know the outcome, so when I heard my name from the stage I was so happy!
“The atmosphere at this gala evening was really special. A month before we had been notified that there was going to be a strict dress code. It was particularly mentioned that the women must be wearing long dresses only. If you remember my dress from the World Athletics Gala 2008 (it was extremely short!) you can understand I had no choice other than to buy a new dress.
“There were many celebrities at the ceremony, for example the pop singer Ani Lorak who was second at the Eurovision song contest in 2008, or her producer, Russian pop artist Philip Kirkorov. I liked to mix up with them as it was all so different from my everyday life. Glamour, everybody looking brilliant, nice music…Sometimes it feels great to experience this atmosphere.
“Back to athletics, of course I could not miss watching the European Indoors in Torino. Unfortunately my sister Viktoriya was not invited and could not compete there. Maybe Vika’s season best result was not good enough, but on the other hand, I saw in Torino several girls who had even worse results.
“My favourite in Torino was Russian Anna Bogdanova. I was almost sure she was going to win. Anya is my friend, and I was so happy for her to get the first major victory in her career. I think the competition was rather interesting. Her result of about 4760 points is quite good, especially considering that it could have been much better if she had run the 800m properly. This case the overall result would have been perfect! Bogdanova is going to be a tough competitor for the outdoor season, but I am not afraid of anybody. I am just focused on my training - if it goes well and I stay healthy, everything will be all right.
“Now I will try to stay away from all temptations, like going out and so on. I need to keep focused on my training. The Heptathlon is such a special event that it would punish you for the slightest weakness. I am trying to pay equal attention to each of the seven disciplines because I want to improve everywhere. I started training about a week ago, and I can say it is going great. I feel healthy and ready for the hard sessions. This first week I was training once a day, but very soon I am going to start doing two training sessions a day. There is no other variant if I want to be on the top in summer. And I definitely want it!”
Natalia
