“This might be the final begin line of my life,” says the Ukrainian who has served his nation in each ultra-running and within the struggle with Russia.
Andrii Tkachuk is not any stranger to sacrifice. Finally month’s IAU 24-Hour World Championships, he turned the primary ever Ukrainian to safe the gold medal within the occasion’s 24-year historical past, working a complete of 294.346km (182.8 miles) in at some point.
Such was the dominance of his victory that he completed simply in need of 9 kilometres forward of Norway’s Jo Inge Norum – a niche larger than the margin between second and fifth place.
It was a second that fulfilled a long-held dream. Since he started ultra-running again in 2012 – his first race was a 50km path run by means of the Carpathian Mountains – Tkachuk had visualised lifting his nationwide flag above his head as a world champion.
“I climbed the mountain,” he says, in his first interview since topping the rostrum in Albi, France, on October 18. “I managed to realize my dream, however the unlucky actuality is that life continues to be very onerous and tough.”
What Tkachuk is referring to is the continued struggle between Ukraine and Russia, a battle that he is aware of all too properly, having spent 14 months of his life preventing for his nation’s freedom.
Now that the ambition to turn out to be a world champion has been fulfilled, he’s contemplating returning to the military and heading again into the warmth of battle.
“This might be the final begin line of my life,” he tells AW, including {that a} last resolution will probably be made within the subsequent two to a few months.
‘The wait on the border was over 10 hours’
Tkachuk’s preparation for this yr’s IAU 24-Hour World Championships was not easy.
In March he was recognized with Achilles tendonitis and was advised by medical doctors that he wanted to do quite a lot of workouts equivalent to swimming and biking to enhance it. Operating, nevertheless, was off the playing cards.
With October’s championships already on his thoughts, he ignored the recommendation and ran a complete of 600km in Might after which received the 100km Ukrainian Path Championships a month later.
“Once I ran within the mountains my Achilles was much less painful,” Tkachuk says.
Nevertheless, his rehabilitation was slowed down when, throughout a 100-mile competitors in Ukraine in August, he competed with a temperature. Victory might need been secured by three hours however the restoration was longer than regular.
Tkachuk then determined to signify Ukraine in September’s World Mountain and Path Operating Championships in Canfranc-Pirineos, Spain. He completed 121st within the Lengthy Path class – a distance of 82km.
Given there aren’t any business flights in or out of Ukraine as a result of ongoing struggle, travelling to Europe is difficult. Tkachuk nonetheless lives in a one-storey home that after belonged to his grandfather in Khust – a metropolis positioned simply north of the Romanian and east of the Hungarian border – and travels northwards to Poland to catch connecting flights.
Not solely is it a six-hour drive to the border however there are nonetheless, unsurprisingly, lengthy queues between Ukraine and Poland. “The wait on the border was over 10 hours after I was travelling to the championships,” he says.
After finally passing by means of the border, Tkachuk caught a flight from Poland to Toulouse and arrived in Albi simply earlier than the beginning of the championships. Nonetheless carrying the 20kg rucksack he packed in Khust, the Ukrainian was exhausted when he arrived at his lodging, however the largest race of his profession awaited.
‘I knew my rivals would finally fail’
There have been two prevailing ideas in Tkachuk’s thoughts when he took to the beginning line on the IAU 24-Hour World Championships.
His first purpose was to not cease in any respect for any meals. “I made my gels beforehand with a mix of maltodextrin and fructose,” he says. “I had these, whereas working, each half hour. Then, within the gaps between this liquid meals, I additionally had 200g of isotonic, cola and mineral water. I had assist from a good friend known as Maria Moskalets in making ready all of this.”
Tkachuk’s second objective was to outlive till the evening. He admits that he first felt a “disaster” after three hours as a result of heat 25C circumstances in Albi and wanted to make modifications to his consuming and consuming schedule consequently.
Beginning with a tempo of 4:27 for every kilometre, which he says is slower than his regular coaching tempo, Tkachuk’s ambition was to get to half-way in a single piece after which plough on.
“I didn’t take note of how briskly I used to be for the primary 12 hours as I knew my rivals would begin first however then decelerate and finally fail,” he tells AW.
A seven-time nationwide champion in 24-hour and 48-hour extremely marathon races, Tkachuk had each proper to be assured. This was solely emphasised by the truth that two of his predominant rivals, Belgium’s Mattieu Bonne and Aleksandr Sorokin, weren’t competing.
“I understood the area was empty so I may take the title,” Tkachuk explains. Extremely, his first bathroom cease was after 13 hours, even after having drunk 10 litres of liquid up till that time.
Because the hours ticked over, the upper the likelihood that Tkachuk would safe the gold medal. His official distance on the finish? A outstanding 294.346km (182.8 miles).
To place that into perspective, it’s 4:54/km tempo for a complete day. That’s the equal of working a 24:28 5km, 48:55 10km, 1:43:13 half-marathon or 3:26:26 marathon for a complete 24 hours.
After taking in his achievement, Tkachuk made his approach to the rostrum and, with the Ukrainian flag displayed above his head on a display screen, sang the nationwide anthem.
“I wished to sing my anthem as a winner and never only a participant,” Tkachuk says.
‘I felt like Rambo’
Tkachuk’s childhood was largely spent, even with poor eyesight, studying journey books. Despite the fact that he solely has two per cent of imaginative and prescient in his left eye, he was fascinated by the outside and experiencing new locations.
The captain of the tutorial decathlon workforce, he was additionally fiercely aggressive and finally signed up, courtesy of a neighbour, to cross-country snowboarding.
Nevertheless the monetary realities of the game quickly set in. Tkachuk’s household weren’t blessed with cash and he subsequently labored in quite a few jobs, together with in each authorities and development.
In 2016 Tkachuk, who at this level was already beginning to make a reputation for himself in ultra-running, labored within the police and, with a deep understanding of the area’s geo-political local weather, knew that Russia was within the technique of build up its navy forces.
Simply two years had handed since Russia invaded Crimea and Tkachuk, eager to serve his nation, had already supplied to affix the navy. “I used to be requested to be taken as a soldier however they turned me down due to my eyesight,” he says.
Six years later, he tried once more. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion in opposition to Ukraine. Tkachuk knew that he needed to battle.
“It was a straightforward resolution to enroll and battle for my nation,” he says. “This wasn’t nearly working, it’s concerning the existence of Ukraine. This was an even bigger purpose.”
Simply over per week after Russian tanks rolled on to Ukrainian territory, Tkachuk marched, as a part of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, in direction of Zaporizhzhia. The town, which is simply east of the Dnipro River, was shelled and he ended up being primarily based in a village known as Mali Shcherbaky.
Full of adrenaline and an anti-tank gun in hand, Tkachuk was positioned on the sting of the village with quite a few different Ukrainian troopers. They waited and waited for the advancing Russians.
“I felt like Rambo,” he jokes. “On account of my eyesight I used to be superb at taking pictures the gun from my proper hand facet. The Russian Military was so properly geared up however we had been preventing for our nation.”
‘It was virtually not possible to cover from the Russians’
On the entrance line, Tkachuk witnessed many horrors however the sound of the Russian helicopters overhead nonetheless sticks in his thoughts. One of many largest points that each he and his fellow troopers needed to face was the problem of discovering cowl, given many of the infrastructure within the village had already been destroyed.
“There have been no hills or mountains and it was plain land,” he explains. “There have been just a few timber, which as soon as protected crops from the winds within the fields, left standing. It was virtually not possible to cover from the Russians.”
For hours upon hours, Tkachuk and his brigade anticipated assaults however they by no means arrived. Russian helicopters got here and went. An eerie quietness crammed the air.
However, then, a Russian helicopter noticed the lads they usually had been hit with what Tkachuk believes had been “120 millimetre weapons” and “cluster bombs”.
Tkachuk, positioned in a barn when this occurred, was shot within the hand and his arm was hit by shrapnel. He was additionally involved about his coronary heart at this level, on condition that he had Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a congenital defect which causes a dangerously quick heartbeat.
“I had the situation since I used to be 15 years previous,” he says, including that he had a five-hour surgical procedure in April 2023 to assist repair the problem. “Because of the stress, I paid extra consideration to my coronary heart problem in the course of the struggle. I really felt I may die as a result of my coronary heart would cease. My predominant concern was that if I died I couldn’t assist different folks.”
After the explosions had ended, a automobile got here to evacuate Tkachuk and people who had been injured in his brigade. Nevertheless, they didn’t have sufficient area for him and the troopers with leg wounds had been prioritised.
In sub-zero temperatures, Tkachuk and quite a few others walked by means of the evening and finally stopped in an open discipline to relaxation and await evacuation within the morning.
‘We don’t wish to simply survive’
Over a interval of 14 months, Tkachuk fought for Ukraine however he by no means misplaced hope of competing for his nation on the worldwide stage once more.
Such was his will to run for Ukraine that, even throughout navy service, he awakened at 4am to extend his coaching load.
Off the again of the profitable surgical procedure for his Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, Tkachuk had much more motivation and rapidly set his eyes on the 2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships in Taiwan.
At this stage of the struggle he had been transferred again to his dwelling metropolis of Khust to work within the military recruitment workplace, however he was initially advised by his supervisor he could not journey.
Nevertheless, after lobbying the federal government, the Minister of Defence’s workplace granted him go away to go to Taiwan and signify Ukraine. Tkachuk did not let his nation down.
He positioned third behind Sorokin and Greece’s Fotios Zisimopoulos with a complete of 284.540km, turning into the primary Ukrainian to make the rostrum on the championships.
His gold medal would observe this yr and, whereas he’s delighted to be inspiring his fellow Ukrainians, he’s all too conscious that there’s a greater job at hand.
READ MORE: Sarah Webster runs world 24-hour file
“It’s a tremendous feeling that I’m inspiring folks to not hand over, particularly given the circumstances in Ukraine are nonetheless actually onerous,” he says. “That is an existential query for our nation and we don’t wish to simply survive – that is about victory. So I’ve due to this fact had ideas about becoming a member of the military once more. The struggle doesn’t appear to be it’s stopping and it’s a logical step for me to return to the entrance line.
“If I had a message to the folks of Ukraine it is that, sooner or later, all wars come to an finish. And, at that second, we are able to get pleasure from sport and common life once more.”
