SPORTSLINE

HOCKEY

On January 31, Dale Hawerchuk of the St. Louis Blues joined the likes of Jean Béliveau, Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and fellow Ukrainians Mike Bossy and Johnny Bucyk. He scored his 500th career goal, the 23rd player in National Hockey League history to do so, usually a benchmark for membership in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

His marker came on a picturesque play at 10:32 of the third period in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, at Maple Leaf Gardens. Rob Pearson, a former Leaf, skated in with Mr. Hawerchuk on a two-on-one, passed back to the Oshawa native, who then whipped a wrist shot into the top corner above goalie Felix Potvin's glove. The Toronto crowd of 15,746 swallowed their home-team allegiances and gave Mr. Hawerchuk a standing ovation.

Mr. Hawerchuk broke into the NHL with the soon-to-be-defunct Winnipeg Jets in the 1981-1982 season, and won the Calder Trophy for best rookie. He has also played with the Buffalo Sabres, and came to Mike Keenan's Blues in a trade earlier this season.

FIGURE SKATING

Ukrainians keep serving up the magical "pechenyi lid" (baked ice) in international competitions, as they did at the recently concluded European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, on January 28.

Viacheslav Zahorodniuk took the gold medal in men's singles, becoming the third Ukrainian European Champion in the past four years (joining Viktor Petrenko and Dmytro Dmytrenko).

In the ice dance, Iryna Romanova and Ihor Yaroshenko proved they are moving up from their perennial sixth or seventh place finishes, to take the bronze.

Another notable effort was Olena Liashenko's, who finished fourth in the women's singles competition. Yulia Lavrenchuk finished 18th.

SAILING

Ruslana Taran (skipper) of Yevpatoriya and Olena Paholchyk of Kyiv took top honors at the first international regatta of the 1996 season in the "470" category, held January 17-21 near St. Petersburg, Florida.

Taran and Paholchyk raced in a leased skiff (used to win the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics in 1988), winning four of eight races to take first place in the women's division. The Crimean captain commented that the water in Florida had "a strong current, similar to the conditions on the Dnipro [River] where we train... This helped us win."

This marks a sound beginning to the Olympic-year for the pair. In 1995, Taran and Paholchyk became European Champions, placed second at the Worlds, and won the over-all World Cup title based on aggregate points. (UWC Sports Commission)

TENNIS

Larysa (Savchenko) Neiland and Mark Woodforde made good on their No. 1 seeding and claimed the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open in Melbourne. The Lviv-born Latvian national and her Aussie partner defeated the pair matching the flamboyant Luke Jensen and Nicole Arendt, 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, on January 28.

This is the 29-year-old Ukrainian's first Grand Slam Title. (UWC Sports Commission)

...AND MORE

• At a World Cup swim meet in Espoo, Finland, on January 27-28, Ukrainian Volodymyr Nikolaichuk took home a gold medal in each of the 200-meter and 400-meter backstroke events.
  
  
• Ukraine's women claimed a silver and a bronze at a World Cup biathlon competition in Germany. A relay team of Olena Petrova, Nina Lemesh, Tetiana Vodopianova and Olena Zubrylova managed to beat a strong French squad by three seconds to claim the silver.

Ms. Petrova took the bronze in the 15-km. individual event.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 18, 1996, No. 7, Vol. LXIV

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