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Chronicle
Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Elena Isinbaeva won the first stage of the largest commercial athletics series, the Golden League, in Berlin. The Russian woman achieved the best result of the season in the world and the record of the traditional DKB-ISTAF tournament - 4 m 83 cm.
Moreover, to win, Isinbayeva had to make only two attempts. First she took the height of 4.68, and then successfully stormed 4.83. Already at the rank of the strongest, Elena asked to raise the bar another 10 cm, but the jumps were unsuccessful. Second place went to Pole Monika Pyrek (4.78), and Brazilian Fabiana Murer (4.68) took third place in the final protocol. Along with women's pole vaulting, the World League's qualifying disciplines include nine more events. Athletes who win all six events and then take part in the World Finals will share a jackpot of $1 million. Last season, Kenyan runner Pamela Jelimo did not have to share this million with anyone, and two years ago Isinbayeva and American Sanya Richards (400 m) received 500 thousand dollars.
The organizers of the “Golden League” prefer a rotation of qualifying disciplines, and the fact that women’s pole vault was again included in the list two years later speaks of Isinbayeva’s colossal popularity. Her participation provides the organizers with commercial success, despite the fact that the Russian woman experiences almost no competition. Here's who won in other events. Men's: 100m - Daniel Bailey (Antigua and Barbuda), 400m - Chris Brown (Bahamas), 5000m - Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia), 110m s/b - Derek Falk (USA), javelin - - Tero Pitkamäki (Finland). Women: 100m - Kerron Stewart (Jamaica), 400m - Sanya Richards (USA), 100m s/b - Damu Cherry (USA), height - Arianna Friedrich (Germany).
Brazilians won the Volley Masters
The traditional, already 25th international Volley Masters tournament in the Swiss city of Montreux ended with the victory of the Beijing 2008 Olympic champions, the Brazilians. These competitions are held under the auspices of the International Volleyball Federation. In the final match, the South American women were stronger than the 2007 World Cup winners and current European champions Italians - 3:0 (25:17, 25:18, 25:23). In the meeting for third place, the Chinese defeated Holland in three games.
The Russian national team did not take part in this tournament and is now preparing for the Yeltsin Cup matches, which will be held on June 28 - July 2 in the Sverdlovsk region. In addition to the hosts, Azerbaijan, Japan, Belarus, Holland and Cuba will play at these competitions. In recent days, the Belarusian press has been actively reading the legendary Soviet and Russian coach Nikolai Karpol, who continues to work with Uralochka, as the new coach of their team.
Meanwhile, the first team to qualify for the 2010 World Championships in Japan has been determined based on its performance in the qualifying round. The hosts of the future World Cup and Russia as the 2006 world champion were exempted from qualification, and they will be accompanied by the Dominican Republic team, which won the first of many tournaments in the decisive third round. The Dominicans didn’t have to put in much effort on their home court; they easily defeated Mexico, Panama and the Virgin Islands.
Peloton rehearsed for Tour de France
Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) took first place in the final general classification of the week-long road race "Criterium Dauphine Libere", which is considered a dress rehearsal for July's Tour de France. Moreover, this is Valverde’s second victory in a row at the Pro Tour series races. Earlier, in the last ten days of May, he became the best in the overall standings of the Vuelta Catalunya.
Valverde for 16 sec. ahead of Australian Cadel Evans (Lotto) and by 1 min. 18 sec. the victor of all super-stage races of the Grand Tour (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta), Spaniard Alberto Contador from Kazakhstan's Astana. Just like at the May Giro, the performance of the Russian Katyusha was not memorable. The best of our cycling group, Alexander Bocharov, became 21st with a deficit of more than 15 minutes, in the team competition only 14th place out of 18 participants.
There have been significant changes in the International Cycling Union's ranking, which takes into account the results of the most important races of the 2009 season (24 in total). The winner of the Giro, Russian Denis Menshov (Rabobank), lost his lead and is in third place (218 points). Valverde (295) is in first place, followed by Contador (263). In the ranking of nations, Russia is fifth, ahead of Spain, which has overtaken Italy, followed by Australia and Belgium.
Our basketball players are waiting for the Euro 2009 playoffs
At the European Women's Basketball Championship in Riga (Latvia), the matches of the second group stage in the six “E” ended yesterday. And the Russian national team, performing in sextet “F”, will have a final round meeting with France today.
Russia, after winning against Italy (67:59) and the “tricolors”, which defeated Turkey (55:43), approached the head-to-head confrontation with a 100% result - four wins each. The fate of first place in the group will be determined in the upcoming game. If success is on the side of Valery Tikhonenko’s team, then in the quarterfinals on June 18 they will definitely fight with Greece.
As for the match with Italy, the most productive in our team were Svetlana Abrosimova (19 points), Maria Stepanova (14) and Ilona Korstin (14). Moreover, Abrosimova and Korstin managed to hit the hoop three times from long range. For Elena Volkova, a debutant at tournaments of this level, all four attempts to shoot from behind a six-meter arc were unsuccessful. So far the European championship is not encouraging with spectator attendance. If up to 6 thousand fans gather for games with the participation of the home team, then only a few hundred people are present at the meetings of the other teams.