Translated material
Chronicle
The Russian Football Premier League sent a request to the Research Institute of Pulmonology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation with a request to assess the current environmental situation in Moscow and the regions of the country from the point of view of the health safety of competition participants (football players, coaches) and spectators during the events scheduled for the coming weekend days of football matches of the Russian Championship, the official website of the Russian Premier League reports.
According to experts from the State Public Institution “Mosekomonitoring”, the degree of air pollution on the morning of August 4 exceeded the permissible norm several times; moreover, a new supply of smoky air to the capital is expected in the near future. The Premier League is concerned about the abnormal weather conditions and smoke in the air; the RFPL is currently considering various options for holding championship and youth championship matches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. At the same time, the RFPL draws attention to the fact that at the moment the issue of canceling the 16th round matches is not being discussed.
Our tennis players play in San Diego and Copenhagen
At the Premier category women's tennis tournament with a prize fund of $700 thousand in San Diego, on the second day of play, three Russians overcame the starting round barrier. Vera Zvonareva, seeded third, defeated Slovak wild card holder Dominika Cibulkova -- 6:0, 3:6, 6:4, Svetlana Kuznetsova knocked out Belgian Yanina Wickmayer -- 6:3, 2:6, 6:1 , and Maria Kirilenko also overcame the resistance of the Japanese “qualifier” Kurumi Nara in a protracted match - 6:4, 6:7 (4:7), 6:3. Nadezhda Petrova could not cope with her former compatriot Yaroslava Shvedova, who has been competing under the flag of Kazakhstan for two years now - 7:5, 4:6, 1:6.
Yesterday afternoon, another Russian, Anna Chakvetadze, successfully played in the first round match of the International category tournament with a prize fund of $200 thousand in the Danish capital of Copenhagen. She prevailed over Swede Johanna Larsson - 6:4, 7:6 (7:2). Anna recently won a tournament in the Slovenian Portorož, but by the time she applied for participation in Copenhagen, the points she earned had not yet been taken into account, so in Denmark the Muscovite had to start with qualifications, where one victory was enough for her to qualify for the main draw.
Bagnoli has decided on the candidates
The head coach of the Russian men's volleyball team, Italian specialist Daniele Bagnoli, has decided on the players who will continue preparing directly for the World Championship, which starts at the end of September in Italy. There are 16 volleyball players on the list. Compared to the final World League tournament in the Argentine city of Cordoba, where the Russians won silver, blocker Alexei Kazakov, diagonal forward Semyon Poltavsky and libero Alexander Yanutov, who did not play in South America, are missing. Moreover, Kazakov was the team captain throughout the World League tournament.
Candidates for the Russian national team to participate in the World Championship: setters - Sergei Grankin, Sergei Makarov; diagonal - Maxim Mikhailov, Alexey Cheremisin; blockers - Anton Astashenkov, Alexander Volkov, Dmitry Musersky, Dmitry Shcherbinin; finishers - Pavel Abramov, Yuri Berezhko, Denis Biryukov, Dmitry Krasikov, Evgeniy Sivozhelez, Taras Khtey; libero - Alexey Verbov, Valery Komarov.
Of these players, Sivozhelez and Verbov were not among the 19 declared for the World League, who skipped the commercial tournament in agreement with the leadership of the All-Russian Volleyball Federation and the coaching staff of the national team. On August 12, the team will gather in Novogorsk, the players will undergo an in-depth medical examination and then go to a two-week training camp at the Volley Grad VFV base in the village of Vityazevo, Krasnodar Territory, near Anapa. In the first half of September, participation in international tournaments in Germany and Serbia is planned. The national team will arrive in the Italian city of Modena on September 19, play a test match there, and on September 25 they will play the opening match of the first group stage of the World Cup against Cameroon. Our other rivals in Quartet “C” are Australia and Puerto Rico.
Peloton works at the Tour of Poland
The first stage race after the Tour de France, included in the world rankings of the International Cycling Union, is taking place in Poland. After three of the seven stages, the leader in the general classification was the Australian Alan Davis from the Kazakh team “Astana”, only three seconds behind him was the German sprinter Andre Greipel, representing the American cycling group Team HTC-Columbia.
The German racer has already managed to distinguish himself by winning the stage - on the second day of the race he finished first in the city of Dobrova-Gurnicza, covering a distance of 240 km. Greipel is a talented sprinter, but he has a very strong competitor in the team - Briton Mark Cavendish, who won five stages at the 2010 Tour de France. Greipel did not participate in the “Big Loop” and now continues to confirm his class again. Especially this season, the German distinguished himself at the European Pro Tour race on the roads of Turkey, where he won five out of eight stages.
The Russian team “Katyusha” competes at the “Tour of Poland” in the following composition: Russians Vladimir Gusev, Nikita Eskov, Egor Silin, Nikolay Trusov, Italian Danilo Napolitano, Laszlo Bodrogi (France), Ukrainian Mikhailo Khalilov, Belgian Stijn Vandenberg. The best of them in the general classification after three stages was Bodrogi, born in Hungary, in 10th place.
The leader in the USI ranking is now the three-time winner of the Tour de France, the Spaniard Alberto Contador, who currently represents Astana, but has already signed a contract with Saxo Bank - 482 points. Behind him are compatriot and Katyusha racer Joaquin Rodriguez (428 points), Australian Cadel Evans from BMC-Racing (390).