Translated material
Chronicle
This week there are four ATP and WTA tournaments. In the Romanian capital Bucharest, men play on clay, and the bonus fund here is 450 thousand euros. In the opening round, Russian Igor Andreev, seeded fourth, lost to Spaniard Santiago Ventura, who made it into the main draw through qualification - 4:6, 1:6. Yesterday in the afternoon in Metz, France, Evgeniy Korolev entered the fight on synthetics.
Many of our compatriots entered the Hansol Korea Open tournament on the courts of Seoul (hard) with a total prize money of $220 thousand. In general, the first round was successful for the Russians. Alisa Kleybanova beat Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik - 6:2, 6:3, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova eliminated American Angela Haynes from further competition - 7:6 (7:5), 6:2, Maria Kirilenko was stronger than Australian qualifier Sofia in three games Ferguson - 4:6, 6:1, 6:2, Vera Dushevina left no chance for Poland's Ursula Radwańska - 6:3, 6:1. Ekaterina Makarova was defeated by Austrian Sybil Bammer - 6:2, 4:6, 4:6. At competitions in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), our not very well-known tennis players perform. Vesna Manasieva defeated the owner of the court Alexandra Kolesnichenko - 6:1, 6:1, in a kind of micro-match Russia - Slovakia Ekaterina Ivanova defeated Lenka Vinerova - 7:6 (7:5), 7:5, Evgenia Rodina beat Kristina Kuchova thanks to successful actions in two tiebreaks - 7:6 (7:5), 7:6 (7:1).
The composition of the gymnastics team has been determined
The coaching staff of the Russian women's artistic gymnastics team has decided on the list of girls who will perform at the upcoming World Championships in London on October 12-18. The national team will be represented by the absolute European champion Ksenia Semenova (pictured) , Ekaterina Kurbatova, Ksenia Afanasyeva and Anna Myzdrikova. The composition of the men's team has not yet been determined; eight gymnasts are competing for six vacancies - Yuri Ryazanov, Anton Golotsutskov, Maxim Devyatovsky, Sergei Khorokhordin, Alexander Balandin, Andrei Perevoznikov, Anatoly Vasiliev and Nikolai Kryukov.
The current World Championship, which has its 41st serial number (the history of the tournament dates back to 1903), is special because it will be held in the capital of the upcoming 2012 Summer Games. Two years ago in Stuttgart, Germany, at the world championship in our team, only Semenova was able to win a medal - “gold” in the uneven bars exercise. In total, 14 sets of awards were raffled off. In the men's team tournament, the Russians took seventh place, in the women's - eighth.
Known participants of the World League -- 2010
For the first time in the history of the World League, the largest commercial tournament for national men's teams, the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) held a qualifying round, identifying two new participants for the upcoming 2010 competition on a sporting basis. The World League, held since 1990, will celebrate its 20th anniversary next season.
The FIVB continues to actively introduce innovations into the regulations of various tournaments. If in the last draw at the group stages the “Italian” scoring system was tested for the first time (win 3:0, 3:1 - three points, win 3:2 - two, defeat 1:3, 0:3 - one, failure 0:3 - zero), now it is applied to two-match confrontations. Qualification for the World League consisted of two stages. First, in the “contender round,” Germany beat Mexico twice (3:0, 3:0), Egypt dealt with Iran (3:0, 3:0). Then the winners met with the teams that took last place in their quartets at the group stage with the worst performance. Bundesteam knocked Venezuela out of the World League (3:0, 3:0), Egypt will replace Japan in the competition (3:1, 3:1). The full list of participants in the 2010 tournament looks like this (16 teams in total): Russia, Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil (current champion), Germany, Holland, Egypt, Italy, China, Korea, Cuba, Poland (new European champion), Serbia, USA , Finland and France. All these teams will have to provide financial guarantees for their participation and the existence of an agreement to show matches with one of the local television companies that buys commercial rights from the FIVB.
As for the premiere use of the “Italian” in two-game confrontations, the principle of determining the strongest in a pair is somewhat different from that adopted in European competitions. If, for example, in CEV tournaments a team, having played 3:1 and 0:3, is eliminated from the competition, then according to the system adopted by the FIVB, it can count on a total victory, because in case of equality of points, the ratio of goals will be considered.
WADA will expand the prohibited list
At a meeting of the executive committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), held in Lausanne, Switzerland, it was announced that from January 1 next year a new, expanded version of the list of drugs prohibited for use by athletes will come into force.
The most notable change to the previous list is the inclusion of so-called pseudoephedrine, which has been allowed for use in small doses since 2003. This drug was usually used by athletes suffering from asthma and colds.
Briatore will become an outcast in football too
The former head of the Renault Formula 1 racing team, Flavio Briatore, who was banned for life by the International Motor Sports Federation (FIA) for cheating at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, is forced to say goodbye to his ambitions in the field of professional football. For almost two years now, Briatore has owned a stake in the English second division club Queens Park Rangers, but according to the laws of the British league, a director or co-owner of any team cannot be a person disqualified in another sport. Officials of the English Football League have already contacted the FIA with a request to familiarize themselves with the “Briatore case”. Most likely, the disgraced F1 manager will have to sell his share of shares in QPR, although quite recently his ambitions were Napoleonic: Briatore dreamed of the club getting into the Champions League.