SPORTSLINE (03/09/03)

SPORTSLINE

Boxing

With his November 23 win against Larry Donald, the World Boxing Council's No. 1 heavyweight contender, Vitalii Klitschko, earned the right to fight for the WBC belt, currently held by Lennox Lewis. However, the 31-year-old Ukrainian has been unable to nail down the highly anticipated fight with the WBC heavyweight champ.

Klitschko started proceedings recently with the WBC to force Lewis to fight him by June, Klitschko's camp said on February 6. The WBC has the authority to order a Lewis-Klitschko fight, as Vitalii is the mandatory challenger.

The AP reported that Vitalii, who says he has a signed contract for a bout with Lewis, wants the WBC to strip Lewis of his last remaining title if he doesn't make the mandatory defense against the No. 1 challenger.

"We should receive the final answer from the WBC's management by March 15 at the latest," Klitschko said of a fight with Lewis that was initially scheduled for mid-April but now may happen some time in June.

In a similar situation, Lewis lost his International Boxing Federation title because he did not want to fight a mandatory bout against Chris Byrd.

If Lewis refuses a bout with Klitschko, the title would become vacant and Klitschko would fight against the WBC's No. 2 ranked boxer, Evander Holyfield, to determine who would hold the WBC title.

Klitschko's camp said they signed a contract with Lewis manager Adrian Ogun for a fight originally scheduled for April 12, in Las Vegas, or April 19, in New York City.

The contract for a fight between Lewis and Klitschko was apparently signed by Klitschko, Hans-Peter Kohl and Lewis's business manager Adrian Ogun but not by Lewis himself.

That apparent loophole has allowed the world heavyweight champion to sidestep the challenge and concentrate instead on a contest with Tyson, which would earn him more than double the purse he would earn in a fight against Klitschko.

"There can only be one answer," Klitschko said recently. "Namely, that the WBC tells Lewis to go ahead with the fight against me. Either Lewis is to defend his championship title in a fight with me, or, otherwise, the title will have to be taken from him and declared vacant."

Lewis's trainer, Emanuel Steward, said on January 30 that Lewis will fight both Klitschko brothers, Vitalii and Volodymr, after his rematch with Mike Tyson and then retire.

Reuters reported on January 21 that Vitalii confirmed he would fight Lewis in Las Vegas on April 12. But prior to that, the BBC reported that Lewis appeared to be wavering about fighting the elder Klitschko.

Britain's Observer newspaper said that Lewis would earn $10 million from a Klitschko-Lewis fight, while the British boxer would earn around $25 million for a Lewis-Tyson bout.

Lewis last boxed on June 8, 2002, against Mike Tyson, defeating the former world champion by knockout.
In other news, Vitalii Klitschko's younger brother, Volodymyr will defend his World Boxing Organization title on March 8 against Corrie Sanders. The fight will take place in Hanover, Germany, at the Preussag Arena.

Sanders, who was World Boxing Union world champion from 1997 to 2000, is regarded as one of the most dangerous boxers in the heavyweight division. The South African, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall, also has an impressive fight record at 38 wins and two losses. Sanders has won 18 of his 28 knockout victories in the first round.

Soccer

Turkey and Ukraine played to a 0-0 draw in Izmir, Turkey, on February 12. The match was the last tune-up before Ukraine faces a critical Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) European 2004 qualifier against Spain on March 29 in Kyiv's Olympiyskiy stadium.

The Ukrainian men will then move on to the Ukraina Stadium in Lviv for their next home qualifier against Armenia on June 7, before welcoming Northern Ireland to Donetsk's Shakhtar stadium on September 6.

"This is the first time in history Ukraine will play in three different cities across the country," said Ukraine's head coach, Leonid Buriak. "The arenas in the country are getting better and now fans outside of Kyiv can see the national team as well."

Ukraine is also scheduled to play friendly matches against Latvia on April 2 and Denmark on April 30. Additionally, an agreement has been reached to play a return friendly game between Ukraine and Turkey on April 26 or 27, 2005.

Ice Skating

Sasha Cohen, the 18-year-old American figure skater who has a Ukrainian mother, beat Irina Slutskaya in the Grand Prix Final in St. Petersburg, Russia, on March 1. Cohen won the final free skate portion of the competition, worth 50 percent of the total. She won the short program and placed second, on February 28, in the first of two free programs.

Ukrainian Olena Liashenko came in fifth place, while Russia's Viktoria Volchkova took third.

For Cohen, who finished fourth at the Olympics in 2002 and at the world championships last year, the result marked her first victory in a major international competition. Slutskaya is the defending world champion and was the leader going into the event's final free skate.

The six competitors in the Grand Prix final, which gathers the top scorers from the six Grand Prix series events held in the fall, were required to do two programs on February 28 and perform a different long program on March 1. Cohen won two Grand Prix events to qualify as the top scorer.

Fellow Americans Michelle Kwan and Olympic champion Sarah Hughes did not take part in the competition. The next major challenge for Cohen is the world championships, which begins on March 24 in Washington.
Ukraine's Olena Hrushyna and Ruslan Honcharov came in fourth place in the pairs ice dance event at the Grand Prix, while Russians Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh took first place and Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov took second place. The Bulgarian team of Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviyski took third place.
Hrushyna and Honcharov also came in fourth in the ice dance event at the European Figure Skating Championships held in Malmö, Sweden, on January 23-25.

Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh of Russia took first place at the event while Albena Denkova and Staviyski of Bulgaria took second place. Navka and Kostomarov took third place.
In the women's event, Ukraine's Liashenko took sixth place while her teammate, Halyna Maniachenko, finished in seventh place. Russia's Slutskaya took first place and her teammate, Elena Sokolova took second place. Hungary's Julia Sebestyen rounded out the medal podium with her third-place finish.
In the pairs competition at the European Championships, Ukraine's Tetiana Chuvayeva and Dmytro Palamarchuk, who finished in 10th place, were beaten by teammates Tatiana Volosozhar and Petro Kharchenko, who took seventh place.

The Russian pair of Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin took first place, while their teammates, Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov took third place. France's Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis took second.

Track and field

Anatolii Dovhal of Ukraine won the men's 60-meter race at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) international indoor meet in Budapest, Hungary, on February 8, with a time of 6.63 seconds. A photo finish saw Gabor Dobos of Hungary take second place with a time of 6.64. Andrea Rabino of Italy was relegated to the third spot with his time of 6.64.
Ukraine's Anzhela Kravchenko and Germany's Gabi Rockmeier, who both finished their 60-meter race in 7.20 seconds, shared second place at the Erdgas indoor athletics meet in Chemnitz, Germany, on February 8. Karin Mayr took first place with a time of 7.17.
Zhanna Block, who officially dropped the Pintusevich from her name, set the fastest time in the world this year in the 60-meter event at the Flanders Indoor Energizer international indoor meet on February 9 in Ghent, Belgium.

Block, the reigning world outdoor 100-meter champion, won in 7.09 seconds to beat 42-year-old Merlene Ottey, who clocked 7.18 and took second place. Muriel Hurtis of France took third place in 7.20. Ukraine's Anzhela Kravchenko took the fifth spot with a time of 7.30.

Block decided to drop her maiden name, Pintusevich, and race under her married name of Block. The original purpose of using Pintusevich-Block was to allow the public to get used to Block before settling on Block alone.
Ukraine's Ivan Heshko took first place in the men's 1,500-meter event, finishing the race in 3 minutes and 42.75 seconds. Germany's Wolfram Muller took second place in 3:44.83, and Belgium's Jurgen Vandewiele took third place with a time of 3:44.96.

Basketball

Ukraine will play in Group B with Belgium, Spain, the Slovak Republic, Russia and Hungary at the 29th Women's European Basketball Championship in Greece. The 16-team tournament, which runs from September 19 to 28, features a first round of round-robin competition to determine the match-ups for the following rounds of single elimination play.

The top three teams from the Women's European Championship will qualify for the 2004 Olympics. Greece qualifies automatically for the Olympics as the host nation, therefore, if Greece finishes in the top three of the European Championship, the top four teams will qualify for the Olympics.

Marathon

Tatyana Pozdnyakova, a 47-year-old Ukrainian, became the oldest woman to win a big-city marathon, prevailing in Los Angeles. Pozdnyakova finished the race in 2 hours, 29 minutes and 40 seconds while Lioudmila Kortchaguina of Russia took second place with a time of 2:30:18 and Zivile Balciunaite of Lithuania took third place with a time of 2:33:22.

With her win Pozdnyakova received $28,000 plus a 2003 Honda Accord EX V-6.

Skiing

Mykola Skriabin of Ukraine came in 31st place in the men's combined event at the Alpine skiing world championship in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on February 7, with a time of 3 minutes and 34.06 seconds. Bode Miller of the United States took first place with a time of 3:18.41. Lasse Kjus of Norway took second place, finishing just .07 seconds behind Miller. Kjus's teammate Kjetil-Andre Aamodt took third place with a time of 3:18.54.

Biathlon

Andrii Deryzemlia of Ukraine won the 15-kilometer mass-start event in Antholz, Italy, on January 26, earning him his first ever World Cup victory. Deryzemlia's time of 37:00.26 beat Russia's Pavel Rostovtsev by 0.7 seconds and Germany's Ricco Gross by 1.2 seconds. Deryzemlia's teammate Viacheslav Derkach finished the race in 11th place, 51 seconds behind the gold medalist.
Oleksander Bilanenko of Ukraine won the men's individual 20-kilometer event at the European Championships, held from February 25 through March 2, in Forni Avoltri, Italy. The 25-year-old Ukrainian completed his run in 53 minutes and 12.1 seconds to take the victory.

Bilanenko left Hungary's Alexei Aidarov 25.4 seconds behind for the silver medal and Germany's Marco Morgenstern took the bronze medal, finishing 1 minute and 10.3 seconds behind Bilanenko. Ukraine's Ruslan Lysenko came in 15th place, 3 minutes and 16.6 seconds behind the gold medalist.

Bilanenko competed at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City where he finished 69th in the 20-kilometer individual event. Deryzemlia's best finish at the 2002 Winter Olympics also came in the men's 20-kilometer event where he finished in 27th place.

Swimming

Ukrainian Yana Klochkova won the 200-meter individual medley at a world cup meet in Berlin on January 27. Klochkova set a world cup record with her time of 2 minutes, 8.44 seconds. Gabrielle Rose of the United States took second place with a time of 2:11.30 and Canada's Elizabeth Warden took third place with her time of 2:11.37.
Klochkova also won a gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley. Her time of 4:34.80 beat Japan's Maiko Fujino, who came in second with a time of 4:35.85, and Canada's Warden, who took the third spot with a time of 4:37.23.
In the women's 200-meter butterfly Klochkova came in sixth behind gold medalist Yu Yang of China who finished the race in 2:04.90. Germany's Annika Mehlhorn took second place with a time of 2:05.98, and Australia's Felicity Galvez took third place with her time of 2:07.34. Klochkova finished the race in 2:08.04.
Oleh Lysohor won the men's 50-meter breaststroke with a time of 26.59 seconds, beating Russia's Roman Sloudnov, who finished in second place with a time of 26.96. Great Britain's James Gibson took third place with a time of 27.17.
Lysohor also took a bronze medal in the 100-meter breaststroke, finishing in 58.64 seconds. Russia's Sloudnov took first place with a time of 57.96, while Japan's Kosuke Kitajima took second place with a time of 58.56.
Ukraine's Serhiy Fesenko took third place in the men's 400-meter freestyle event, losing to Russia's Yuri Prilukov, who took first place with a time of 3:41.87. Romania's Dragos Coman took second place with a time of 3:42.55.

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