SPORTSLINE

Ice Hockey

• The Ukrainian men's team took ninth place at the 2002 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships in Sweden behind World Champion Slovakia, silver medalist Russia and bronze medalist Sweden. Ukraine upended Poland 3-0 on April 30 and Austria in its last game 3-2 on May 6. Ukraine's three loses came against teams ranked among the top four in the world.

Ukraine dropped its first game of the tournament to fourth-ranked Finland 3-0 on April 27. Two days later Ukraine nearly missed tying the eventual gold medalists when Slovakia scored with only 3:10 remaining in the game to pull out a 5-4 victory. Before being handily beaten 7-0 by No. 3 ranked Sweden on May 4, Ukraine played silver medalist Russia to a 3-3 tie a day earlier. Ukraine finished the 16-team tournament on May 11 with a 2-3-1 overall record.

• Tammy Lee Shewchuk, a member of the 2002 Canadian women's Olympic gold medal ice hockey team, met with over 150 students of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Saturday School in Montreal on April 6. According to the newspaper Ukrainian News, Ms. Shewchuk "explained to her audience how her grandparents played an important role in her upbringing and [in] teaching her to speak Ukrainian ... and talked about how proud she was of her Ukrainian heritage."

The newspaper added that "Tammy Lee was extremely happy about her encounter with the young Ukrainian schoolchildren and took time to meet with the young audience individually and to pose for photographs with her gold medal."

"My grandparents had such a great influence upon me when I was growing up," the Ukrainian News quoted the 24-year-old Shewchuk as saying. "We spoke Ukrainian at home and we used to go to [St. Sophia's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of Montreal] every weekend."

Boxing

• Volodymyr Klychko defeated South African Frans Botha in the eighth round of their March 16 bout with a technical knockout in front of over 10,000 fans at the Hann-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany. The win marked Klychko's third successful defense of the World Boxing Organization (WBO) heavyweight title and improved the 26-year-old Ukrainian's record to 38-1 with 35 knockouts. Klychko's next title defense comes on June 29 in Atlantic City, N.J., against 10th ranked WBO contender Ray Mercer. Experts believe a win against Mercer should set the stage for a possible bout with current World Boxing Council (WBC) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion Lennox Lewis. Lewis is coming off of a successful June 8 title defense over Mike Tyson. The potential of a Lewis-Klychko bout would leave the winner with the three major boxing belts: WBO, IBF and WBC.

As photographers were taking pictures of Mercer and Klychko at a press conference on June 1 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, the fighters were asked to look each other in the eyes. The second time Mercer was asked he replied: " ... why don't you go up here and look him (pointing at Volodymyr) in the eyes ... and I'll stand back there and take as many pictures as you want with your camera, from a safe distance," Mercer said according to a fan at the press conference.

Brother Vitalii Klychko (32-1, 30 knockouts), the World Boxing Association (WBA) international champion, is currently the No. 2 ranked WBO heavyweight behind his brother, Volodymyr, and No. 1 ranked WBO contender Jameel Ben McCline of the United States. Vitalii is scheduled to defend his WBA title against 35-year-old Larry Donald (39-2-2, 23 knockouts) on July 20 in Dortmund, Germany.

Chess

• International Chess Federation FIDE champion Ruslan Ponomaryov of Ukraine took second place at the Linares 2002 chess tournament behind Grand Master Garry Kasparov. Countryman Vasyl Ivanchuk came in last place among the seven invited competitors at the tournament that concluded on March 10.
  
  
• Ponomaryov lost in the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix event in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, to women's world champion Zhu Chen of China on April 4, according to The Associated Press. Ivanchuk suffered an upset defeat at the hands of 15-year-old Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in the second round of the same tournament.
  
  
• The New York Times later reported that Ivanchuk beat longtime chess wizard Garry Kasparov at the Eurotel Trophy Knockout Tournament in Prague on May 25. "It was not a fluke," The Times reported. "[Ivanchuk] presented a stone wall to Kasparov ... and when he got his chance in the final game, he came through with flying colors."

Diving

• Ukraine won three medals at a Federation Internationale de Natiation (FINA) Grand Prix diving competition held in Rostock, Germany, on March 1-2. Hanna Sorokina won the silver medal in the women's 3-meter springboard with 301.53 points while Ditte Kotzian of Germany won the gold with a score of 308.01 and Jane Smith of Great Britain took the bronze with 295.47.

Sorokina's teammate Olena Zhupina was fifth with 291.84 points. Zhupina won a bronze medal in the women's 10-meter platform with 325.38 points. Na Li of China won the gold with 342.33, and Emilie Heymans of Canada took the silver with 330.84.

Roman Volodkov and Anton Zakharov won silver in the men's 10-meter synchronized event, finishing behind gold medalists Peter Waterfield and Leon Taylor of Great Britain, but ahead of Jan Hempel and Heiko Meyer of Germany, who took the bronze.

Swimming

• Yana Klochkova and Oleh Lysohor took five of Ukraine's seven total medals at the 6th FINA World Swimming Championships held in Moscow on April 3-7. Klochkova took the 400-meter freestyle and 200- and 400-meter individual medleys, while Lysohor took two gold medals and set championship records in the 50- and 100-meter backstroke events.

Klochkova's 4:30.63 in the 400-meter individual medley beat Slovenian silver medalist Alenka Kejzar and bronze medalist Georgina Bardach of Argentina, who finished with times of 4:35.44 and 4:36.36, respectively. Klochkova then went on to beat China's Hua Chen and American Rachel Komisarz in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:01.26, while Chen finished in 4:03.01 and Komisarz in 4:06.30. In the 200-meter individual medley, Klochkova's time of 2:08.82 gave the 19-year-old her third gold medal. She finished ahead of America's Gabrielle Rose, who finished in 2:09.77, and Russia's Oxana Verevka, who finished with a time of 2:11.25.

Lysohor started his first day of competition with a gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke by beating Japan's silver medalist Kosuke Kitajima and Finland's bronze medalist Jarno Pihlava. Lysohor clocked a championship record time of 58.33, while Kitajima and Pihlava swam the 100-meter event in 59.10 and 59.22, respectively. Lysohor took his second gold medal of the competition in the 50-meter breastsroke with a time of 26.86 by beating Brazilian Eduardo Fischer and Remo Luetolf of Switzerland who finished in 27.23 and 27.44, respectively.

In the women's 200-meter backstroke Ukraine's Iryna Amshennikova won her first ever world championship medal by taking the bronze behind American gold medalist Lindsay Benko and silver medalist Reiko Nakamura of Japan. The 16-year-old Ukrainian swam the 200 meters in 2:07.71, Nakamura in 2:07.30. Benko's time of 2:04.97 was good enough for a new championship record.

Ukraine rounded out its medal count in the men's 50-meter freestyle when Oleksander Volynets tied Russia's Alexander Popov for the bronze medal with a time of 21.55. Jose Martin Meolans of Argentina took the gold in 21.36, and Great Britain's Mark Foster took the silver with a time of 21.44.

Drag racing

• Self-described Ukrainian Mark "Cowboy" Pawuk made his National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing debut in 1987 as a pro stock driver. Since that time he's posted 11 career top-10 points finishes on the professional circuit and won the 2001 AC Delco Nationals. The 45-year-old native of Bath, Ohio, and his wife, Bonnie, have two children, Kassandra and Kyle. "Cowboy" has six career pro stock wins with a fastest quarter-mile speed of just over 200 mph.

Track and field

• Zhanna Pintusevich-Block became the first female track and field athlete to be awarded Ukraine's Sports Person of the Year award. According to Pintusevich-Block's sports management agency, FSM, the Ukrainian, who turned 30 on June 7, was honored because of her win in the 100-meter sprint at the Track and Field World Championships in Edmonton, where she ran the world's fastest time for 2001 and defeated American Marion Jones twice in one day.
  
  
• Ukraine's Vita Pavlysh won the gold medal in women's shot put at the 27th European Indoor Athletics Championships by throwing a distance of 19.76 meters in Vienna on March 2. She beat Italian silver medalist Assunta Legnante, who threw 18.60 meters and bronze medalist Lieja Koeman of the Netherlands, who threw 18.53 meters.
  
  
• Ukraine's Anatolii Dovhal took the bronze medal in the men's 60-meter sprint with a time of 6.62 seconds while British teammates Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis took the gold and silver medals with times of 6.49 and 6.55, respectively.

Marathon

• Tatyana Pozdnyakova was the second woman across the line at the Los Angeles Marathon on March 5, finishing in 2:30:26. The 46-year-old Ukrainian was followed by Anna Pichrtova of the Czech Republic who took third place with a time of 2:33:25. Russia's Lyubov Denisova won the women's division with a personal best time of 2:28:49.

Gymnastics

• Ukraine's Olena Kvasha won the floor exercise at the senior women's European Championships in Patras, Greece, on April 21, topping Russia's Natalia Ziganshina. Kvasha took third place in the all-around competition, while teammates Iryna Yarotskaya and Tatiana Yarosh placed eighth in uneven bars and floor exercise, respectively.

In the women's junior competition Ukraine took two golds with Mirabella Akhunu and Alina Kozich winning the floor exercise and uneven bars, respectively.

Soccer

• Dynamo Kyiv Vice-President Ihor Surkis announced on May 22 that Oleksii Mykhailychenko will serve as acting head coach of the club soccer team following the May 13 death of head coach Valerii Lobanovskyi, the team's official website reported. The 39-year-old Mykhailychenko was Lobanovskyi's assistant. Surkis added that Mykhailychenko will lead Dynamo Kyiv until the present season ends, at which point club management will decide whether to extend his contract or find another coach.
  
  
• Ukrainian national team and AC Milan forward Andriy Shevchenko was pictured in a New York Times fashion article dated May 21. The headlined read, "Want to be a male model? Wear a real face." The article featured professional athletes who modeled for various fashion magazines or made runway modeling appearances. Shevchenko's undated picture was, according to The New York Times, from an Armani runway fashion show.

Volleyball

• India upset Ukraine in the men's semifinal of the 7th Rashid International Volleyball Tournament in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, on March 18. Ukraine, the defending champion, took the first game 25-23 and then lost the next three 25-23, 25-20 and 25-21.

Football

• Santa Monica High School lineman and co-captain Dan Solchanyk was recently the subject of an article in the local newspaper, The News. The April 18 piece featured Solchanyk who decided against attending a Division One school after attending a White House and ESPN seminar on drugs and sports. Solchanyk chose instead to attend the University of California at Davis where, "after considering all the options, I will get a quality education and play championship football," Solchanyk, who was heavily recruited by colleges, was quoted by The News as saying.

"My college choice was very dependent upon the academic level of the university. I didn't want to be riding the bench for three years and then only play for one year. A lot of colleges fell under that category and I had a lot of options, including Tufts, Trinity and Johns Hopkins," added Solchanyk, who started the past three years for his California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division 10 championship team.

(Dan is the son of Roman Solchanyk, whose byline is familiar to Weekly readers who read his analyses of Ukraine and post-Soviet affairs.)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 16, 2002, No. 24, Vol. LXX

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