In August 2021, Viktor Kostyuk, Russia’s master of sports in hand-to-hand combat and the bench press, was returning with colleagues from the next championship. The team of the Volgograd athlete won the national tournament, and he was probably preparing to celebrate this success with his relatives… However, the athletes were not destined to return home.
Viktor Kostyuk’s social networks
A driver’s error cost the lives of four athletes.
“Sports masters go home…”
Early in the morning of August 30, the athletes were returning home from Tver, where the All-Russian competitions in universal combat were held. At the tournament in memory of the Olympic champion Sergei Novikov, who founded this new sport, the Volgograd team won a landslide victory, so the wrestlers left the city in excellent spirits.
The youngsters posted joyous messages from the championship, having last checked on social media shortly before the accident. Viktor Kostyuk posted on the network a photo with his comrades from the salon of his Toyota, addressed to his common coach: “The masters of sports in universal combat are going home …”, the athlete simply signed the photo.
In the cabin of a foreign car following the Tambov-Volgograd-Astrakhan highway, in addition to Kostyuk, there were three people: his brother Valery, a boxing trainer, with whom Viktor worked in the Alex Fitness gym; world champion wrestler Amanat Khamzin; and Russian kickboxing championship medalist Tabriz Ismailov.
Viktor Kostyuk’s social networks
The tragedy occurred at 7:35 am on the bridge over the Buzuluk River in the Novoanninsky district. At kilometer 717 of the highway, Toyota unexpectedly flew into the oncoming lane, colliding head-on with a cement truck. Under the wheels of a huge car, the foreign car instantly turned into a pile of metal. Three passengers died on the spot and the driver of the passenger car was hospitalized, but on the night of the same day he died from his injuries. Only the man who was at the helm of the cement truck managed to survive.
Viktor Kostyuk was officially recognized as the culprit in the incident. The media also began to circulate the news that for the last year and a half before the accident, the athlete had 53 fines, but a friend of the athlete, in an interview with Notepad Volgograd, disputed this fact. According to him, the coach had several cars that he rented to taxi drivers, so the warnings for all his violations came in his name. It is difficult to say for what part of them Kostyuk was responsible, but, according to the interlocutor, the athlete always drove “carefully.”
“Mother lost two children”
For Kostyuk’s relatives and friends, the news of the accident was a terrible blow. At home, Elena’s wife and her daughter Varya were waiting for the 31-year-old athlete, who in just two days would go to the first grade; to her, Victor’s brother Valery was also her godfather.
Varvara lost two parents in one day. Her mother lost two children. I have lost two loved ones. At our last conversation, Vitya spoke so proudly, since at the competitions his brother dispersed everyone. I asked him: “Are you proud of your brother?” He said, how… They were proud of each other. Two heroes, two champions, – wrote Victor’s widow on social networks.
Viktor Kostyuk’s social networks
Victor loved his family infinitely and was generally a kind, understanding and friendly person; this is how people who exercised under his auspices in the gym spoke of him. Dozens of people came to honor the memory of the coach under his latest post on the social network:
– Vitya, every time, standing in front of the mirror and hitting a deuce, I remember you. I am proud to have met this man.
– I met Victor from Zebra. Lost like a brother. Now in the church we will ask for peace for you.
– Eternal memory for Victor and Valery! They were examples for others. Gone so early The city is in mourning for you!
