Dynamo Marches to Victory
The week before last was literally golden for Kyiv Dynamo. The Kyivans
came onto the field to play the Cup of Ukraine final match against Lviv
Karpaty with the title of national champion already assured.
Indeed, practically nobody doubted Dynamo's victory in the second tournament.
The Kyivans decided the fate of the game as early as in the middle of the
first half: in the space of one minute, Andriy Shevchenko and Valentyn
Belkevych scored two goals for Dynamo. The visiting team immediately lost
heart. The Dynamo players confidently brought the game to its logical end
(3:0, the last goal being scored by Andriy Shevchenko) and again confirmed
they are now unrivaled in Ukraine.
Winning coach Oleksandr Mykhailychenko, addressing the post-match press
conference, noted the excellent performance of his charges, who had played
and won impressive two lopsided victories in very important matches within
four days. The coach did not rule out that the club would involve reserve
players in its final championship matches.
Themis and Human Strength
Rhythmic gymnastics is perhaps a sport where yesterday's idols are as subject
to ridicule as anywhere. It seemed quite recently that such Ukrainian stars
as Oksana Skaldic, Alexandra Tymoshenko, Kateryna Serebrianska, and Olena
Vitrychenko set the pace for the world , but today, when, alas, this country
has no representatives in the International Gymnastics Federation, they
can deliberately lower our points and help to our rivals.
For example, all experts think the Ukrainian gymnasts showed the most
sophisticated program at the European championship in Budapest. When they
competed like a clockwork, the audience held breath, then bursting into
a storm of applause. However, the judges placed our girls only fifth.
Olena Vitrychenko also suffered from the judges' bias: she came in only
sixth in overall standings. And although she won two gold and one silver
medals in the individual events (with ball, ribbon, and rope, respectively),
the general impression was spoiled.






