Historical medieval battle is developing fast and becoming more popular all over the world. Every year more and more countries participate in the HMB World Championship Battle of the Nations. Fights are becoming more exciting and professional, and every day the ranks of fighters in armor are replenished with talented new men and women. HMBIA News continues to introduce these bright and new fighters to you.

Today we will talk about the talented athlete Alexandra Soloshchenko, who represented her home country Kazakhstan at the World Championship in Serbia. We are sure that many people within the HMB community know her well or may even have fought against her, but our heroine is an interesting person outside the lists as well. Let’s start our story from the very beginning of this athlete’s journey to the pedestal at the Battle of the Nations 2019.

Alexandra started HMB at the age of 17 while being a schoolgirl, though she collected her first sports achievements long before that. Prior to historical fencing she spent 10 years professionally engaged in swimming and even became Champion of Kazakhstan in her age category on several occasions. For a number of reasons, she had to leave the swimming pool behind, but she had no plans to leave sports. So, the choice fell on crossfit, where she showed excellent results because of her swimming achievements. After her first HMB tournament where Alexandra participated a month after the start of her training in HMB sports, it became clear that fighting in armor was exactly what she wanted! She did not forget about education. Alexandra enrolled in the Siberian State University of Physical Culture and studied in Omsk.

“There I started to practice historical fencing in the Bratina club. These guys have become very close friends to me. We are in touch to this day. They taught me everything they knew. In the summer of 2016 I organized a 3vs3 female team and we went to the Battle of the Neva in St. Petersburg. This trip was a key one in my life, there that I met the whole champion team of the “BAYARD” club. I still keep in my phone a message from Sergey Ukolov, which he sent to me when I returned home after the tournament. “I was glad to meet you, you are a great! Moscow is not made of rubber, but you should come, it’s better here!”

Inspired by the words of the legendary athlete, she moved to Moscow. Here during the year there were training and tournaments, but she got a knee injury at one of the training sessions. But even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. During this period Aleksey Petrik appeared in Alexandra’s life. A personal acquaintance with Alexey took place in the city of Vologda at the Russian Championship in sports sword. The next six months, the relationship of athletes developed rapidly and Our heroine moved to Karelia the city of Kondopoga, where today lives, works and trainings under the guidance of Alexey. But, at that time, a knee injury was still troubling. The girl had a surgery and there was a difficult recovery period ahead.

“I started to train with Alexey a couple of months after the surgery. I can say that Alexey taught me to walk again and hold the shield and sword in my hands again. It was the hardest 8 months of training before the Battle of the Nations.”

The strong, tempered character in sports, the habit of fighting to the end and the easy adventurousness of Aleksandra helped a lot in this battle. There were ups, downs and even curiosities. Here is how Alexandra herself tells it:

“I think that my fights in the qualifying tournament of the Golden Hand were very successful, especially due to the lack of experience of fighting in duel nominations, because before the injury I only fought in Buhurts and profights. At that tournament, I took gold in two nominations – the Sword and Buckler, winning over Maria Davydova, now the World Champion in this nomination, and in the Sword and Shield nomination (2-nd league), defeating Alina Lappo – the world champion 2019 in the corresponding nomination. In Triathlon at that tournament I took part in the Longsword nomination and took this sword in my hands for the first time too. “How to hold and beat it correctly?” – I asked such novice questions before going to the lists. I never got out of my subgroup at Triathlon that time. ”

Such a successful tournament could not be overlooked. Aleksandra received another offer, which was eagerly accepted. Alexandra was texted by Evgeny Sukhotin, captain of the National Team of Kazakhstan, and he offered to become part of the national team for the Battle of the Nations 2019. She said yes, because she had dreamed about the World Championships from the very moment she found out about it. Unfortunately, due to political problems in Kazakhstan, only Alexandra managed to come to Serbia and to represent her country. However, she is certain that she was not alone – her friends, acquaintances and ordinary HMB fans from Kazakhstan constantly supported her. The girl showed brilliant results at the Battle of the Nations 2019, taking second place in the Sword and Buckler nomination and making the sports fans of HMB rejoice not only from Kazakhstan, but even beyond it.

“Especially I want to say thanks to Eugene, he helped me with paying for the flight and the entire Championship was in touch with me!”

We also are grateful to Eugene Sukhotin for his generosity; however, our story must continue. Tournaments and training are a huge and very important part of our athlete’s life, but her interests are not limited to this.

“I try to spend all free time from trainings and work on traveling. Last year we traveled all the most interesting places in Karelia and drove to the Crimea by car. This winter we had a spontaneous trip to the most extreme northern point of Russia – Teriberka, and recently we returned from a super journey of 10 thousand km by car.”

As for her hobby, she told us that her hobby is her job. Alexandra confessed that she enjoys sewing sports soft equipment for trainings and tournaments. Also, some time ago, she became fascinated by photography. Despite the fact that in such a busy schedule it is difficult to find time for this creative hobby, thanks to the travels, the portfolio of Alexandra the photographer is filled with beautiful pictures of nature and much more. However, for her it is a hobby for the soul.

Concluding the story about this hardworking, talented, and interesting athlete, in whose bottomless blue eyes you can drown, we note that she does not intend to stop at the progress achieved. She shall forge ahead toward new goals in sports and other areas of life.
We thank Aleksandra Soloshchenko for her insight and time, and further wish her new victories and the full realization of all her dreams.In our next publications expect even more information about other HMB athletes – what you didn’t know or were afraid to ask …

HMBIA News