Ukrainian coal miner Andrii’s face lit up when he talked about meeting Oleksandr Usyk.
“Wow,” the 36-year-old said in English.
Andrii and more than a dozen other war veterans were on hand when Usyk beat Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion.
Photo: AP
It was a rematch of their 2023 bout that Andrii viewed under vastly different circumstances.
“I watched this fight on the front line on my phone,” he said through an interpreter during a stop on Friday at the Ukrainian Embassy in London. “We were watching very quietly, but when he won there was loud noise — we really celebrated.”
“So now, two years later, being here in person for the fight is a huge event,” he said.
He spoke on condition that only his first name be used, citing security concerns.
The veterans are employees of Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, which has partnered with Usyk to raise awareness about the plight of the country’s civilian energy infrastructure since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Most of them had never traveled outside Ukraine before. They took a train to Warsaw and from there a flight to London, landing on Thursday and going straight to a downtown hotel to meet Usyk.
“He told about his training sessions, how he prepared for the fight, but he also mentioned his journey from his childhood to becoming champion,” Andrii said. “He’s an ambassador of Ukraine and he supports energy workers. He can bring attention to the problem.”
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power grid during the war. At one point, 90 percent of DTEK’s thermal generation capacity was damaged or destroyed.
More than 300 DTEK workers have been killed in the war and 900 more injured, mostly while fighting.
Andrii, who lives about 70km from the front line in eastern Ukraine, had served two years in combat and described his injuries — a concussion and taking shrapnel in his right leg from an exploding land mine — as “minor.” Like so many other Ukrainians, he has lost friends and loved ones.
The bright lights and modern infrastructure of England’s iconic stadium were a welcome change for the veterans.
The 38-year-old Usyk, an Olympic gold medalist from the 2012 London Games, has embraced his unofficial ambassadorial role for his country.
“All of my fights are important for me and my team,” he said on Thursday. “Now, it’s very important to my country and the soldiers who protect my country, because it’s motivation for my people.”
Earlier in the week, Usyk joined billionaire Richard Branson to unveil a mosaic in Trafalgar Square as part of an effort to raise funds for housing for Ukrainians.
“Russia destroyed hospitals, Russia destroyed schools, Russia destroyed lives — Ukrainian lives,” the undefeated Usyk told the gathering. “But we will survive.”
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh defeated Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in Monday’s final to become the first catcher to win the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. The 28-year-old switch-hitter, who leads MLB with 38 homers this season, won US$1 million by capturing the special event for sluggers at Atlanta’s Truist Park ahead of yesterday’s MLB All-Star Game. “It means the world,” Raleigh said. “I could have hit zero home runs and had just as much fun. I just can’t believe I won. It’s unbelievable.” Raleigh, who advanced from the first round by less than 25mm on a longest homer tiebreaker, had his father
RSS