>Ekaterina Bekh moved to Ukraine in 2018 to achieve sports success, but after the start of the SVO, Federation President Vladimir Brynzak secretly took her out of the country. And now she has returned her Russian passport and can play for our national team.
She left for Ukraine for a better career
Ekaterina did not have great achievements in the Russian biathlon, although she was included in the extended list of the Russian junior team. However, the competition in our country is quite serious, young Beh was not too ready for this. And then an offer came from Ukraine, where there is an acute shortage of personnel. There were many times more opportunities for development and gaining experience. Here is a Russian woman and decided to take a bold step.At first, everything worked out for her. It also helped that in Russia she was released without complaints, so that she escaped quarantine and was almost immediately able to play for a new country. That's just for the sake of it I had to throw out my Russian passport. Who would have thought then that it would have to be returned in four years. Beh, meanwhile, won two gold medals at the World Junior Championships in sprint and pursuit, and then added a victory at the European championship.
She was ahead of Irina Kazakevich, who later became one of the leaders of the Russian team and an Olympic medalist. Beh looked at least as good at that level, so the prospects seemed promising. In 2020, Ekaterina was included in the already adult team, but at that moment everything broke down. A talented biathlete failed to race at the World Cup, after which she was sent to the IBU Cup. It is quite logical that she was not taken to the Games in Beijing in 2022.
Secret return and old-new passport
Literally a few days after the end of the Olympics, a special Russian military operation in Ukraine took place. Beh had to urgently flee the country in the opposite direction. This was not easy to do, for obvious reasons. Therefore, the case was taken under personal control by the head of the Biathlon Federation of Ukraine Volodymyr Brynzak. He took her and several other naturalized Russian women home.It would seem that the story should have ended there. Moreover, Beh was officially excluded from the Ukrainian team. In Russia, she was helped by former presidential candidate of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) Alexei Nuzhdov, who now heads biathlon in the Moscow region. He provided her with funding, and Ekaterina was able to perform at some starts in the new season. Some results were quite decent, and then the ex-Ukrainian disappeared again. staffing shortage. However, the rumors remained rumors, and Bech was still able to return her Russian passport after lengthy procedures. She will train in the group of Kuvaev and Spiridonov in the Moscow Region team,» Nuzhdov confirmed.
Who knows, maybe this will breathe new life into the career of a 24-year-old biathlete, not endowed with talent. Now, when there are no international starts, you can safely develop without any pressure, without fear that you will be thrown overboard. Everything is in the hands of Beh, who changed her mind in time and returned to where she was born.