ONLY SILVER

Before the second phase of the World Cup in gymnastics held in the German city of Bochum, the Palace of Sports in Kyiv gathered under its roof the most graceful girls for a modern rhythmic gymnastics tournament as part of the All-Ukrainian Summer Sports Games. All Ukraine's strongest gymnasts took part in the tournament.

It is common knowledge that Ukraine holds one of the world's leading places in this sport. And such gymnasts as Olena Vitrychenko, Tamara Yerofeyeva and Hanna Bessonova have long been part of the world sports elite. This time, too, no doubts were raised as to superiority of the pupils of the famous Kyiv-based Deriugina school. They won all the medals, both in the team and individual events, while Olena Vitrychenko, the bronze medal winner at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, became the overall winner of the tournament. The Kyiv girls were also unmatched in group exercises.

«This was a very important tournament for all our national rhythmic gymnastics,» says the competition's chief umpire Albina Deriugina, «We watched over 160 gymnasts from all Ukrainian regions where our sport is practiced. The overwhelming majority of them were in this competitive atmosphere, in a gymnasium like this, for the first time. For earlier, such domestic tournaments were mostly held in usual training gymnasiums. It is for the first time that we managed to hold a nationwide competition in the Palace of Sports. In addition, we have shortlisted candidates to the Ukrainian national team for the world championship to be held in October in Osaka, Japan. Small wonder that all athletes represent the Kyiv-based Deriugina school, for it currently has no rivals on the international scene as shown by the tournament results. I would also point out great professional progress in the athletes from Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolayiv, and Lviv oblasts. The national team's chief coach is sure to keep an eye on all of them.»

At the second phase of the World Cup in gymnastics in Germany Ukraine was represented at this most prestigious competition by Deriuhina School trainees, Hanna Bessonova and Tamara Yerofeyeva.

Unfortunately, the performance of our gymnasts was anything but successful. Perhaps, this was due to the fatigue accumulated in the course of the exhaustive four-day marathon called The First All-Ukrainian Summer Sports Games, held in the Kyiv Sports Palace. In any case, in the overall competition our girls finished seventh (Bessonova) and eighth (Yerofeyeva). Russian Alina Kabayeva became overall champion. She also confirmed her high class in individual contests, three times ascending the podium and losing only once to Belarusian Yuliya Raskina.

Up to the final competition it looked like our young ladies could end up with nothing. However, in her best event, the exercise with a ribbon, Tamara Yerofeyeva convinced the judges of her skills and bagged the silver. In the group exercises the Deriuhina School team was fifth. Frankly, this is no great shakes for a country which is one of the world leaders in the women's gymnastics.