“This could possibly be the final begin line of my life,” says the Ukrainian who has served his nation in each ultra-running and within the conflict with Russia.
Andrii Tkachuk is not any stranger to sacrifice. Finally month’s IAU 24-Hour World Championships, he grew to become the primary Ukrainian ever to safe the gold medal within the occasion’s 24-year historical past, working a complete of 294.346km (182.8 miles) in someday.
Such was the dominance of his victory that he completed simply wanting 9 kilometres forward of Norway’s Jo Inge Norum – a niche better 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 attain my dream, however the unlucky actuality is that life remains to be very laborious and tough.”
What Tkachuk is referring to is the continued conflict 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 into a world champion has been fulfilled, he’s contemplating returning to the military and heading again into the warmth of battle.
“This could possibly be the final begin line of my life,” he tells AW, including {that a} ultimate choice 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 12 months’s IAU 24-Hour World Championships was not easy.
In March he was identified with Achilles tendonitis and was informed by docs that he wanted to do quite a lot of workouts similar to swimming and biking to enhance it. Working, nonetheless, was off the playing cards.
With October’s championships already on his thoughts, he ignored the recommendation and ran a complete of 600km in Could after which received the 100km Ukrainian Path Championships a month later.
“After I ran within the mountains my Achilles was much less painful,” Tkachuk says.
Nonetheless, his rehabilitation was slowed down when, throughout a 100-mile competitors in Ukraine in August, he competed with a temperature. Victory may need been secured by three hours however the restoration was longer than standard.
Tkachuk then determined to symbolize Ukraine in September’s World Mountain and Path Working Championships in Canfranc-Pirineos, Spain. He completed 121st within the Lengthy Path class – a distance of 82km.
Given there are not any industrial flights in or out of Ukraine as a result of ongoing conflict, travelling to Europe is difficult. Tkachuk nonetheless lives in a one-storey home that when belonged to his grandfather in Khust – a metropolis situated 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 once I was travelling to the championships,” he says.
After ultimately passing by means of the border, Tkachuk caught a flight 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 ultimately 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 intention was to not cease in any respect for any meals. “I made my gels beforehand with a mixture 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 help from a good friend referred to as Maria Moskalets in making ready all of this.”
Tkachuk’s second objective was to outlive till the night time. 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 in consequence.
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 listen how briskly I used to be for the primary 12 hours as I knew my rivals would begin first however then decelerate and ultimately 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 most important rivals, Belgium’s Mattieu Bonne and Aleksandr Sorokin, weren’t competing.
“I understood the house 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 chance that Tkachuk would safe the gold medal. His official distance on the finish? A exceptional 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 strategy to the rostrum and, with the Ukrainian flag displayed above his head on a display, 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 educational decathlon crew, he was additionally fiercely aggressive and ultimately signed up, courtesy of a neighbour, to cross-country snowboarding.
Nonetheless 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 strategy of increase its army forces.
Simply two years had handed since Russia invaded Crimea and Tkachuk, eager to serve his nation, had already provided to hitch the army. “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 struggle.
“It was a simple choice to enroll and struggle for my nation,” he says. “This wasn’t nearly working, it’s concerning the existence of Ukraine. This was an even bigger intention.”
Simply over every 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 referred to 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. “Because of my eyesight I used to be excellent at taking pictures the gun from my proper hand aspect. The Russian Military was so properly outfitted however we have been preventing for our nation.”
‘It was nearly inconceivable 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 issue of discovering cowl, given a lot 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 nearly inconceivable 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 boys they usually have been hit with what Tkachuk believes have been “120 millimetre weapons” and “cluster bombs”.
Tkachuk, situated 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 outdated,” 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 challenge throughout the conflict. I truly felt I may die as a result of my coronary heart would cease. My most important 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 those that had been injured in his brigade. Nonetheless, they didn’t have sufficient house for him and the troopers with leg wounds have been prioritised.
In sub-zero temperatures, Tkachuk and quite a few others walked by means of the night time and ultimately stopped in an open area to relaxation and await evacuation within the morning.
‘We don’t need 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 army service, he awoke 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 conflict he had been transferred again to his dwelling metropolis of Khust to work within the military recruitment workplace, however he was initially informed by his supervisor he could not journey.
Nonetheless, after lobbying the federal government, the Minister of Defence’s workplace granted him go away to go to Taiwan and symbolize Ukraine. Tkachuk did not let his nation down.
He positioned third behind Sorokin and Greece’s Fotios Zisimopoulos with a complete of 284.540km, changing into the primary Ukrainian to make the rostrum on the championships.
His gold medal would observe this 12 months and, whereas he’s delighted to be inspiring his fellow Ukrainians, he’s all too conscious that there’s a larger activity at hand.
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“It’s an incredible feeling that I’m inspiring folks to not quit, particularly given the circumstances in Ukraine are nonetheless actually laborious,” he says. “That is an existential query for our nation and we don’t need 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 conflict doesn’t seem 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 take pleasure in sport and common life once more.”
