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When Second Is a Victory

26 June, 00:00

By Kyrylo STADNYCHENKO, The Day The second international European Masters of Gymnastics Tournament took place in Pa/trai (Patras), Greece. It was a team competition, the special feature of which was its including both classical and modern rhythmic gymnastics. The tournament graphically demonstrated the union of gymnastics for which this sport's international federation is striving.

In fact all the strongest European athletes competed. Suffice it to say that in the very first leg the Ukrainian national team faced a most serious rival, Belarus. In any case, the Ukrainians won, as they also did against France and Italy. Russia's very strong national team awaited our women gymnasts in the finals. The tournament's favorite won.

Still, let us agree that second place in the European gymnastics hierarchy is also a grand event for our school. This success became possible thanks to classical gymnasts Oleksandr Svitlychny (Luhansk), Ruslan Mezentsev and Olha Teslenko (Kyiv), Inha Shkarupa (Ternopil), and rhythmic gymnasts Olena Tkachenko and Iryna Kobets (Simferopol).

Let me especially praise our rhythmic ladies. Liubov Serebrianska's pupils have in fact recently been unable to take part in official competitions and only contented themselves with second-grade international tournaments. But in Greece, the Crimean girls showed their class, with Olena being twice awarded ten, the highest grade in gymnastics. In the unofficial classification, Tkachenko ranked fourth among all rhythmic gymnasts at this tournament.

Newspaper output №:

№24, (1999)

Section

Society