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Chronicle
The Russian women's volleyball team won two victories in three matches of the first weekend of the Grand Prix, an annual commercial tournament with the participation of the strongest teams in the world. The main prize is contested by 12 teams, which will play a total of nine matches at the preliminary stage.
The Russians started in the Chinese Ningbo with a match against Korea and won in three games - 3:0 (25:23, 25:23, 25:15). This was the official debut in the national team in competitions under the auspices of the FIVB for head coach Vladimir Kuzyutkin, his assistant Rishat Gilyazutdinov, Anna Makarova, Elena Murtazaeva and Ekaterina Starodubova. The next day, the Russians successfully withstood a five-set battle with the Dominican Republic team - 3:2 (25:21, 25:27, 19:25, 25:11, 15:10). World champion Maria Borisenko scored eight points on the block - a grandmaster figure. In these two meetings, one of the best strikers in the world, Ekaterina Gamova, entered the game from the substitutes' warm-up zone, and in the match with China, Kuzyutkin released her in the starting lineup. In the presence of 8 thousand spectators, our girls gave the battle to the hostesses, but still the victory remained with the Chinese - 3:2 (23:25, 25:23, 20:25, 25:14, 15:9).
In the general table, the situation is as follows: Brazil, the USA and Holland have three victories each, Russia, Germany and Thailand have two each, Poland, the Dominican Republic and the USA have one win, Puerto Rico, Korea and Japan, which has a guaranteed place, suffered three defeats each in the final tournament as the host country. Japan will be joined by the five best teams from the preliminary stage on August 19-23 in Tokyo.
Massa left the hospital
Ferrari pilot Felippe Massa was discharged from the hospital yesterday and flew home on a private jet to continue his treatment. Let us remind you that during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix the driver had an accident and was seriously injured. In his first interview after discharge, Massa said that he felt much better and wanted to get back behind the wheel as soon as possible.
“During the accident, I experienced strange feelings. I remember very well how it all happened: a spring flew out of Rubens Barichello’s car and hit my helmet, but I didn’t seem to feel anything. Then they told me that I lost consciousness and drove into a barrier. I woke up in the hospital two days after the accident. When I came to, I didn’t remember anything at all, so the doctors had to explain to me how I ended up in the hospital bed. The last thing that stuck in my memory was how I was driving behind Barichello’s car. And then - failure,” the official Ferrari website quotes the 28-year-old Brazilian as saying.
Massa also noted that his team made the right choice by inviting the legendary Michael Schumacher. “Winning is in his blood, he is a truly great racer. Inviting him to drive a Ferrari again is a brilliant decision,” concluded Massa.
Zubov and Kovalev invited to the Olympic team
The coaching staff of the national team and the Russian Hockey Federation invited 38 players to Moscow to gather candidates for the Olympic team, the official website of the Russian Hockey Federation reports. Head coach Vyacheslav Bykov invited players who had not been called up for a long time to the team - SKA rookie defender Sergei Zubov and Ottawa forward Alexei Kovalev. In general, the team composition looks like this: goalkeepers - Ilya Bryzgalov (Phoenix), Semyon Varlamov (Washington), Alexander Eremenko (Salavat Yulaev), Evgeniy Nabokov (San Jose); defenders - Vitaly Atyushov (Metallurg (MG), Vitaly Vishnevsky (Lokomotiv), Anton Volchenkov (Ottawa), Sergei Gonchar (Pittsburgh), Denis Grebeshkov (Edmonton), Alexey Zhitnik (Dynamo "), Sergey Zubov (SKA), Dmitry Kalinin, Maxim Kondratyev, Vitaly Proshkin, Oleg Tverdovsky (all - "Salavat Yulaev"), Konstantin Korneev (CSKA), Andrey Markov (Montreal), Ilya Nikulin (Ak Bars "), Fedor Tyutin (Columbus); forwards - Evgeny Artyukhin (Tampa Bay), Maxim Afinogenov (Buffalo), Konstantin Gorovikov (SKA), Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit), Danis Zaripov, Alexey Morozov, Alexey Tereshchenko (all - "Ak Bars"), Sergey Zinoviev, Viktor Kozlov, Alexander Radulov (all - "Salavat Yulaev"), Alexey Kovalev ("Ottawa"), Ilya Kovalchuk ("Atlanta"), Nikolay Kulemin (“Toronto”), Evgeniy Malkin (“Pittsburgh”), Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin (both “Washington”), Oleg Saprykin (“Dynamo”), Sergei Fedorov (“Metallurg” (MG), Alexander Frolov (“ Los Angeles").
The largest representation in the national team is “Salavat Yulaev”, which delegated eight players to the main team.
Dushevina won her first victory
Russian tennis player Vera Dushevina (pictured) became the winner of the WTA tournament in Istanbul, beating in the final in 40 minutes. Lucia Hradecka from the Czech Republic - 6:0, 6:1. Previously, Dushevina reached the decisive stage three times in various competitions, but stopped one step away from victory.
For the second week in a row, Nikolai Davydenko won the champion title. This time, in the decisive match of the tournament in Croatian Umag, he beat the Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero - 6:3, 6:0. For Davydenko, this title was the second this season and the 16th in his career. In terms of the number of tournaments won, he surpassed his compatriot Marat Safin, who has 15 victories.
Thanks to successful performances in Hamburg and Umag, Davydenko moved up one position in the ATP rankings and currently occupies eighth place with 3525 points. The leader in this list is the Swiss Roger Federer - 11,060 points.
The President of the Russian Federation signed a decree on awarding Olympians
President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on awarding Russian athletes - winners of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, RIA Novosti reports. Medvedev himself stated this during a planned meeting with the Minister of Sports and Tourism Vitaly Mutko.
“I hope that in the near future I will be able to reward our Olympians who have achieved very good results. This indicates that in general high performance sports are developing in our country and, despite financial and economic difficulties, the situation is not bad,” he commented on the event president of the country.