"It was a shame to fall behind": Russian champion lost to Ukrainian 2024 Olympic medalist and ignored his name

Russian track and field athlete Valery Pronkin was upset that he was unable to surpass the hammer throwing performance of Ukrainian Mykhailo Kokhan at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The 30-year-old athlete was the first to send the projectile 79.24 meters, which is 15 centimeters less than our bronze medalist at the Games in the French capital.

Pronkin said this in an interview with the propaganda news agency TASS. The Russian did not mention the name of our athlete or the name of our country, but he singled out the vice-champion of the Olympic Games, Benze Halas from Hungary.

"I remembered the result that the 2024 Olympic silver medalist Benze Halas, a Hungarian, showed in Paris. I was no worse prepared, as evidenced by my training and warm-up, and in my first attempt I calmly threw 77.94 meters, after which I thought I was ready to throw further. But I failed to achieve the desired result. And it was very disappointing to be just a little bit behind the result of the Olympic bronze medalist," Pronkin said.

Earlier, high jumper Maria Lasitskene spoke out against pro-Ukrainian World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, who intends to become the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, Maria Lasitskene failed to win the Russian championship and ran into trolling from fans online.

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