BEIJING, Mar 2, Andrey Simonenko. 110 meters hurdles Sergey Shubenkov expressed the opinion that if the World Athletics Association (World Athletics) would allow the Russians to the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, it would be unreasonable to go there. On Tuesday, World Athletics, amid the situation in Ukraine, banned athletes from Russia and Belarus participation in the upcoming World Athletics Series tournaments, in particular, the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade (March 18-20). «There is no surprise, the decision was in the air. And for (World Athletics President Sebastian) Coe, it may be the easiest of all that he accepted. But I believe that if Russian athletes were not even suspended from starts, then, for example, it would be a reasonable decision on our part not to go to the next competitions. Because, as always, the sport will be buried under about sports,” Shubenkov said. “Of course, people were preparing, they want to perform, but the performance will be under sidelong glances. Not even athletes — we still have solidarity, only a few publicly support sanctions. The problem is that in the mixed zone there will be nothing about sports at all. Representatives know which media will provoke, try to dig up something … So, at the World Indoor Championships, it will not be possible to compete normally, it will not be possible to show results against such a background,» the athlete added.
