Strongman from Kolmar - Bronze Medal Winner at World Championships
Kolmar employee Vladimir Mikhailov won a bronze medal at the world kettlebell lifting championship held in the city of Aktobe in Kazakhstan.
440 athletes from 37 countries (the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Denmark and others) took part in the championship. Representatives of Australia, the RSA and India took part in the world kettlebell lifting championship for the first time. The winners of the championship earned the right to represent their countries at the next world championship in South Korea.
Vladimir Mikhailov, Kolmar Coal Mining Company employee, is a member of the Yakut sports elite. He is a member of the Neryungri District team, prize winner of the Russian veterans’ championship, and defends the honour of the Republic at the most important and prestigious kettlebell lifting competitions. He has won numerous medals for his victories in the district and region. As a patriot of Yakut sports, he believes that his most important achievement was his victory at the Maanchara Games.
The Neryungri strongman has been practising kettlebell lifting for 16 years. Before that, he practised boxing, kickboxing, mass wrestling and khapsagai. However, it was only in weightlifting that he found use for his incredible strength. Kettlebell lifting is a sport for real men: the point is to lift kettlebells as many times as possible during a certain period in a standing position. Mr Mikhailov’s personal record is as follows: he lifted a 32-kilogram kettlebell 94 times in 10 minutes.
Vladimir Mikhailov has been working at Kolmar for almost five years since moving to Neryungri from Nyurba. He began his career as deputy head of the heat economy division. In order to have more time for sports, he changed his working position and became a boiler house operator. He greatly values his work and says with pride that his contribution to creating favourable working conditions for miners lies in every ton of coal extracted at the Denisovskiy Coal Complex.
Kolmar does the utmost to encourage a healthy lifestyle, mass involvement in physical training and competition-level sport. Thanks to the company management’s understanding, Vladimir has a convenient working schedule allowing him to train five days a week. His colleagues cheer him on, watch his progress with great interest and support him. This good-natured attitude makes Mikhailov try to live up to the trust and hopes of his fellow workers.
Vladimir Mikhailov is well-known in Neryungri not only as a champion but as a coach training future champions. He trains teenagers at the Triumph sports school where he teaches them the basics of the ancient sport of kettlebell lifting that still enjoys great popularity today. His best pupils have already been victorious at the Maanchara Games and now, it’s their coach’s dream that they will go on to be masters of sports. Vladimir Mikhailov passes on his experience to the youth in Neryungri and encourages the growth of the future sports elite of Yakutia.