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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv Boys and Girls Raised Hell in Instanbul

30 July, 1999 - 00:00

The aquatics championship of Europe, just completed in Turkey, had a good Ukrainian “rain” of nine awards after a day of lull: four gold, three silver, and two bronze medals. This slightly “nasty weather” in 40-dgree heat was arranged by a quartet from Zaporizhzhia and a duet from Kharkiv.

A flawless synchronous performance of almost all 3-meter springboard dives allowed Olena Zhupina and Hanna Sorokina to defeat the German pair Connie Schmalfus and Simona Koch in a bitter struggle. Let us note this is the first “golden” success of our divers in Europe since they began performing as an independent team. The second success was again achieved by the indefatigable Olena Zhupina, coached by Tetiana Turova. The world champion literally “crushed” her rivals with her powerful and highly sophisticated dives from the 10-meter platform, leaving the latter no chances but for second and third places.

Their compatriot Svitlana Bondarenko, 28, made her debut at this kind of competition in 1991, when she won the silver in the 100m breaststroke. As we see, she also kept to the tradition of netting medals in Istanbul, having won four and being second best only after the leader of the European breaststroke Agnes Kovacz from Hungary. The same happened to our butterfly swimmer Denis Sylantiev, who lost the 200m to Frenchman Frank Esposito by a mere 0.09 seconds! This relative failure upset the world leader in this swimming event so much that he only finished third in the 100m.

When the championship was drawing to a close, European champion Yana Klochkova from Kharkiv added one more gold medal in the Womens 200m medley and a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle. And her fellow countryman Ihor Snitko was unmatched in the hardest event — the 1500m freestyle. Our “marathon” swimmer's result - 15:07.19 — was almost six seconds better than that of Rumania's Dragos Koman, who came second. A nice “rain,” isn't it? We only wish the weather had not been “made” by representatives of only two regional centers: out of the athletes from other Ukrainian cities, only Kyiv's Oleh Lisohor, who finished second in the 50m breaststroke, made a contribution to the national team.




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