Russia Tour Diary: Young swim champs hope to be better than Phelps

Volgograd, June 27: All the passengers in the open sleeper compartment of the train from Saransk to Volgograd were vexed. It is finally summer here, a time all Russians look forward to. But the temperature has reached 38 degree Celsius and those who got into the train at Saransk had their towels open already for the regrettable 18-hour journey.

Twelve among the 38 passengers, swimmers returning from a national competition, would have rather preferred to soak in the water and accumulate tan as they normally do.

Instead, they ran around the hallway finding a way to pass time - they boarded their train at Penza, further away from Saransk. Sleep wasn't an option because of the sweat. Their only options were to play cards or join a party in the train. The bored children combined both the activities.

While it isn't permitted to consume liquor in Russian trains, a couple of Belarusians had already made themselves at home - shirts off and beers in hand. Vaselli and Alexi were swearing in incomprehensible Russian and the kids found it funny, trying to pick up those words for later use. "What the f***," Vladimir Sukharenko, the breast stroke specialist among the swimmers, uttered as he lost a game of blackjack with the Belarusians.

"Yes yes. I do speak English," Alexander Vereshchagin said, but that was the only sentence in English he could manage.

But when it came to swimming, the kids from the Central Sport Swimming Academy in Volgograd were easily the best in their age group in the region.

“I was led into swimming by my parents," Alexander said. "I recently participated in a national swimming competition in Penza. The competitions were held from the children's swimming league 'Volga'. I came first in freestyle swimming and got two other bronze medals. In the future, I would like to occupy the first place among adults in Russia, and hope to be selected for the Olympics and win it!"

Vladimir, who came first in 150 metres freestyle and second in breast stroke (50m), wants to better the greatest Olympic champion, Michael Phelps. "I started swimming eight years ago when I was six years old and since then, my only aim has been to swim in the Olympics. I want to compete and be better than Phelps."

If not him, Vladimir hopes Anatoliy Erin, the best among them, makes it big.

Their swimming coach, who was seated right next to the drunk Belarusians, didn't discourage his wards from mingling with the wrong company. He was rather worried about Vaseli, who was taken away by the train guides, for creating a ruckus in the train.

"We have to travel in the cheapest compartment (by Russian Rubles) as we are paying for the trip ourselves," Vladimir added. "Otherwise there is another group heading to Anapa for a competition and their trip is sponsored by the government. It will definitely be good to get sponsored but we anyway love the company of this train."

The train then reached Saratov, where it would stop for an hour from 9.30 pm local time, and the coach signaled for his wards to hit the bed.

Cards packed and swimming trunks off, the 12 children began snoring soon enough. Or was it the old man who sounded like a running engine?

Anyway, with Vaseli and Alexi now gulping down vodka shots, it was a normal day in a Russian train for all the passengers but a jolly evening for the swimmers. Look out for them.

(myKhel.com correspondent Aravind S is in Russia, covering the event though from a typical fan's perspective).