The athlete from Kazan contributed his share to victory of MES of Russia team in the World Games in Canada.

The athlete of Tatarstan Maxim Marakhtanov have brought to the MES of Russia team, which have taken the first place at the World Games among firemen and policemen in the city of Vancouver in Canada, as many as three medals - gold, silver and bronze. The MES of Russia team have brought home 63 medals total.

World Games, which were arranged in Canada from 1 to 9 August 2009, included all kinds of sports of the Olympic Games. The competitions in Vancouver became a kind of rehearsal before the Winter Olympics. In the World Games took part 60 countries, including Russian emergency team, which consisted of 23 firefighters and rescuers. Tatarstanian Maxim Marakhtanov participated in athletics competitions.

- Adapt was hard, the time difference with Vancouver have 11 hours, and also the climate is quite different - says Maxim. - In the first days of training I was feeling asleep, I couldn’t run, my feet were padded. I was lucky, because I began to participate in competitions only from 3 August, so my adaptation took 4 days. These days I had enough time to get into shape.

India has exposed very strong team to the Games. The teams of the USA, France, Romania and China also had the strong athletes . However, Maxim in form-running hurdles at 110 meters could to lead and earn the gold medal. The Indians got second place. But in the long jump, athlete from India was still ahead of Maxim and left him only the second place.

- I jumped always before a Indian athlete - recalls Maxim. - And his result was always better of mine with a few centimeters. Even with the last attempt, when I jumped 7 meters 20 cm, the Indians managed to beat me by 9 centimeters.

In the age group athletes from 18 to 29 years, Max was the only one who defended the honor of the team, so all Russia looked at him. Even the burden of responsibility on his shoulders a little crushed our athlete. Therefore, during the triple jump Maxim have pulled his leg and have gone down to that distance. In the next kind of athletics – javelin, Tatarstanian athlete with sick leg have taken just the third place, behind Finn and Canadians.

Iskander Manzhikov