SPORTSLINE (05/11/03)

SPORTSLINE

Track and field

Ukraine's Zhanna Block won the women's 60-meter sprint at the World Track and Field Indoor Championships, held in Birmingham, England, on March 14-16, with a time of 7.04 seconds. Americans Angela Williams and Torri Edwards took second and third place, respectively, with times of 7.16 and 7.17.

Iryna Lishchynska of Ukraine took fifth place in the women's 1,500-meter event, finishing in 4 minutes and 7.19 seconds. America's Regina Jacobs won the event in 4:01.67, while Great Britain's Kelly Holmes took second place with a time of 4:02.66. Russia's Yekatarina Rozenberg came in third place with a time of 4:02.80.

In the women's long jump Ukraine's Inessa Kravets took second place with a jump of 22 feet and 34 of an inch. Russia's Tatyana Kotova took first place, jumping 22-5 1/4, while Brazil's Maurren Higa Maggi jumped 21-11 34 to take the third spot.

In the women's high jump Ukrainians Iryna Mykhalchenko and Inga Babakova took fifth and eighth places, respectively, jumping 6.43 feet and 6.30 feet. Sweden's Kajsa Bergqvist took first place with a jump of 6.59, and Russia's duo of Yelena Yelesina and Anna Chicherova took second and third places with jumps of 6.53.

Ukraine's Vita Pavlysh took fourth place in the women's shot put, throwing 64.73 feet. Germany's bronze medal winner Astrid Kumbernuss threw 65.16, while Russia's Irina Korzhanenko took the gold medal with a throw of 67.42. Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus took the silver medal with a throw of 66.63.

In the women's 4x400-meter relay the Ukrainian team of Antonina Yefremova, Tetiana Debela, Natalia Zhuravliova-Vdovychenko and Natalia Makukh took fifth place with a time of 3 minutes and 36.18 seconds. Russia took first place with a time of 3:28.45, while the Jamaican team took second place, finishing the relay in 3:31.23. The team from the United States took third place, finishing in 3:31.69.

Ukraine's Maryna Brezgina finished the women's pentathlon in seventh place after completing the competition's five events - 60-meter hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put and the 800 meters. Sweden's Carolina Klüft took first place with 4,933 points, and Natalya Sazanovich of Belarus took second place with 4,715 points. France's Marie Collonville took third place with 4,644 points. Brezgina finished with 4,313 total points.

On the men's side, Yurii Bilonoh of Ukraine won a bronze medal in the men's shot put with a throw of 69.32 feet. Manuel Martinez of Spain took the gold medal with a throw of 69.69, and John Godina of the United States took the silver medal with a throw of 69.65.

In the men's long jump Volodymyr Zyuskov of Ukraine came in fifth place with a jump of 26.25 feet. America's Dwight Phillips won the event with a jump of 27.2, and Spain's Yago Lamela took second place with a jump of 27.17. Miguel Pate of the United States took third place with a jump of 26.94.

Andrii Sokolovskyi of Ukraine came in eighth place in the men's high jump, clearing 7.38 feet. Sweden's Stefan Holm won the event after he jumped 7.71, and Russia's Yaroslav Rybakov took second place with a jump of 7.64. Belarus's Gennadiy Moroz took third place with a jump of 7.55.

Ukraine's Ivan Heshko came in fifth place in the men's 1,500 meters with a time of 3 minutes and 44.56 seconds. France's Driss Maazouzi won the event with a time of 3:42.59 and Kenya's Bernard Lagat took second place with a time of 3:42.62. Morocco's Abdel Kader Hachlaf took third place with a time of 3:42.71.

Boxing

Ukrainian boxer Vitalii Klitschko will get his opportunity to fight for the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title by the end of November, Klitschko's promoters said on May 5, according to a Reuters report that same day.

The news wire also reported that Klitschko's German promoter, Klaus-Peter Kohl, said he signed a contract with Lennox Lewis' management for the fight to take place before December. This is the second time a fight between WBC title-holder Lewis and the WBC's No. 1 ranked contender has been scheduled.

Lewis called off an April 2003 fight with Klitschko, saying the Ukrainian had not gone through the necessary fights to make him the rightful challenger for the WBC belt. "Vitalii Klitschko at this time doesn't deserve a chance to fight me," Lewis was quoted as saying. "Who has he fought?"

A series of legal actions between the two camps attempted to resolve the situation but were both dropped after the WBC recently ruled that Vitalii Klitschko is the No. 1 WBC contender and, therefore, Lewis must defend his title in a bout with Vitalii.

However, on April 25 Reuters reported that Lewis would face Canadian Kirk Johnson on June 21 in Los Angeles. The news organization also reported that the WBC ruled it is not sanctioning the fight and that the bout will not be for Lewis' WBC title.

In yet another twist, the Associated Press reported that Vitalii Klitschko would also fight in Los Angeles's Staples Center on June 21 but as the undercard of a Lewis-Johnson main event. The news wire reported that Klitschko is scheduled to fight a 10-round bout but his opponent has not been determined. Vitalii Klitschko, who is 31-1 with 31 knockouts, is also ranked the No. 1 contender by the World Boxing Association.

In other boxing news, following a disappointing March 8 loss to South African Corrie Sanders, Volodymyr Klitschko said at the end of March: "I'm looking forward to a rematch against Corrie Sanders. We have talked with the WBO [World Boxing Organization] and Sanders' promoter. I think we need another three weeks. Then we will have more information."

Diving

Olena Zhupina won a silver medal in the women's 10-meter platform event at the ninth Federation Internationale de Natiation (FINA) Diving Grand Prix held in Madrid on March 13-16. China's Jing Zhou won the event with 342.93 points while Puerto Rico's Angelique Rodriguez took third place with 321.57 points. Zhupina finished the event with 341.22 points.

In the women's 3-meter springboard Zhupina captured a bronze medal, earning 303.72 points. China's Hou Yuanyuan took the gold with 321.81 points, and Hungary's Nora Barta took the silver medal with 310.68 points.

On the men's side Ukraine's Dmytro Lysenko took a bronze medal in the men's 3-meter springboard competition, earning 420.93 points. Russia's Aleksandr Dobroskok won the event with 458.94 points, and China's J. Chen took second place with 434.97 points.

Ukraine's Aleksander Kropotov took a bronze medal in the men's 10-meter platform competition, earning 371.76 points. China's Jing Chang won the event with 412.80 points and Canada's Julio Abate took second place with 374.40 points.

Ice hockey

Ukraine got its only win at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships in Finland on April 30, beating Japan 5-1. The win set up a May 2 contest against the heavily favored Czech Republic, which Ukraine subsequently lost 5-2. However, many hockey analysts credited Ukraine with a strong performance against the Czechs and despite some controversy - Ukraine's goalie Ihor Karpenko was run over by a Czech player, giving the Czech squad a rather simple empty net goal for a 2-0 lead - managed what many hockey analysts and experts called a respectable performance against a Czech team filled with National Hockey League talent.

Prior to the game against Japan, Ukraine lost to Germany, 3-1, and Slovakia, 9-3, during the first round of round-robin competition play. Since the top three out of four teams in each of the tournament's four groups qualified for the next round, Ukraine's win against Japan gave it the final group A ticket to the next round and set up the game against the Czechs.

A disappointing 9-0 loss to Finland on May 3 means Ukraine will finish no better than 10th place at the 2003 World Championships, but no worse than 12th. Though Ukraine will not place higher than it did at the 2002 championships in Sweden, where it finished in ninth place, it has secured a spot at the 2004 World Championships in the Czech Republic.

Ukraine then lost its final game of the 16-team tournament, which ends with the gold medal game on May 11, to Austria on May 5 by a score of 4-0. Several other games, which would ultimately determine Ukraine's final standing in the tournament, had not yet been played as of press time. However, one thing is known for certain: Ukraine will finish the tournament ahead of the NHL-laden American squad, which finished the tournament in 13th place.

In other hockey news, Ukrainian sniper Dave Andreychuk scored his 611th career regular season NHL goal to move past Bobby Hull for 11th place on the all-time list during the Tampa Bay Lightning's 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on March 14. Since then Andreychuk added to his total and finished the season with 613 regular season goals. However, his scoring touch was not enough to help Tampa Bay overcome the New Jersey Devils in the second round of the NHL playoffs.

Ukrainian minor-leaguer Dmitri Tolkunov of the American Hockey League's Norfolk Admirals held an auction recently to help the family of his former coach in Ukraine who died of a blood disorder last year.

The coach who nurtured Tolkunov for eight years in Kyiv, until the youngster made the leap to Canadian junior hockey in 1995, was Konstantin Gavrilov. A local Virginia newspaper reported that Tolkunov was devastated when Gavrilov died suddenly last October and so the 23-year-old Tolkunov is doing what he can with a silent auction during his team's Western Conference semifinal playoff series against the Houston Aeros.

Tolkunov said Ukrainian youth coaches are generally assigned a team of 6-year-olds and move up with them through the age-group ranks until they leave for junior hockey or the Ukrainian national team.

Gavrilov's bunch also included Ruslan Fedotenko, who plays with the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning, and Alex Zinevych, who's skated in the American Hockey League and East Coast Hockey League.

Tolkunov, currently sidelined with a minor knee injury, has yet to make his NHL debut but played for Ukraine in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He credits much of his success to his former coach.

Gavrilov is survived by his wife and four children, age 2, 4, 16 and 21. According to the local paper, Tolkunov said the eldest is a U.S. college student but the remaining family members are struggling to make ends meet and the auction is a way to help.

The event featured numerous sticks and stick blades autographed by Admirals players. But the big-ticket items were NHL game jerseys signed by Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux, Los Angeles' Jason Allison and Vancouver's Henrik Sedin.

Proceeds were to be personally delivered to Gavrilov's family by Tolkunov upon his return to Kyiv later this spring.

"It's very hard for his wife with no man in the family so I wanted to do this little bit,'' Tolkunov told the Virginia-Pilot on May 2. "She is not working because she has the responsibility of the kids. When I go home after the playoffs, they will be the first people I go to see.''

Chess

International Chess Federation FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine came in fifth place at the 20th Linares Super GM Tournament in Spain following the conclusion of play on March 9. Out of the seven competitors, Russia's Vladimir Kramnik took first place and Hungary's Peter Leko took second place. India's Viswanathan Anand took third place.

Fencing

The Ukrainian Weekly recently learned that Ukrainians are involved in fencing at the highest international levels, specifically, as members of the U.S. national fencing team. Out of the team's seven coaches, two are from Ukraine while a third was born in Poland but studied at a fencing academy in Lviv.

"Ukrainian and other east European coaches have laid the foundation for many of U.S. fencing's recent successes," said Cindy Bent, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fencing Association.

Simon Gershon, who currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and is the U.S. national fencing team's men's foil head coach, was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. According to the U.S. team's website, he was the Soviet Union's men's and women's foil coach in 1983-1991. He coached the Soviet Union's gold-medal winning women's foil team at the 1986 World Championships.

According to an article in The New York Times, the first ever American to be ranked No. 1 in the world in men's saber, Keeth Smart, is coached by Yuri Gelman, a former saber competitor from Ukraine. Mr. Gelman is the U.S. national fencing team's men's saber head coach.

And, according to the U.S. Fencing Association, Leszek Stawicki, the current head coach of wheelchair fencing for the U.S. national team, is a native of the former Soviet Union who earned the title of Eminent Coach of the Republic while at the Academy of Physical Training in Lviv, Ukraine. He is also currently the head coach of the Louisville Fencing Center in Kentucky and he coached the 1996 U.S. paralympic team. Prior to coming to the United States, Stawicki was the Polish national coach, guiding the saber team to a silver medal at the 1986 World Championships and a bronze at the 1976 World Championships. At the 1980 Olympics, his epee team won the silver medal.

Soccer

The Ukrainian Nationals soccer club beat the Baltimore Colts 1-0 with a sudden-death overtime goal with three minutes remaining to play during U.S. Open Cup competition on April 13. The Ukrainian club team, currently the Eastern Pennsylvania regional champions, defeated the Maryland State regional champions during the round of 16 play. The Ukrainian squad then lost to Champions League winner Vistula of New Jersey, on April 27, by a score of 3-0. The game was played at the Ukrainian American Sport Center (Tryzubivka) in Horsham, Pa. The loss eliminated the Ukrainian team from the U.S. Open Cup.

- compiled by Andrew Nynka

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