World athletics champion and current Russian long jump record holder Alexander Menkov believes that sanctions imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (World Athletics) prevented him from fully realising his potential in professional sport. The 32-year-old native of Krasnoyarsk is confident that he could have achieved a lot if Russia had not been banned in 2015.

"My career was at its peak, I could have achieved a lot more, I think, if we hadn't been banned in November 2015. It's a real shame, half my career was just ruined. After all this, it's very difficult to find motivation, to train for many years in anticipation of international starts. You just wait, and your exhausted body asks: "Aren't you tired of all this?" - TASS quotes the 2013 European champion.

Menkov admitted that every year he sent an application to the Russian Athletics Federation and asked why he was denied access again.

"All I got was assurances that they worked hard, tried and wanted to. That was the end of it. There was no response to any of my applications from World Athletics, only in 2017, shortly before the World Championships, I was allowed to play the rest of the season. And then silence," the Russian added.

In the comments, fans took the athlete's text with irony, pointing to the true culprit in all the troubles in Russia.

"It would be interesting to know the names of the people he thinks are most responsible for this," users sarcastically asked.

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