Precious games

Russian volleyball and handball teams went to the quarter-finals, the second week of games began, and somehow it suddenly found that the medal carrier was declining. That is, you seem to look at the column, where the daytime number of sets is listed, and you see all the same numbers - approximately 15-20. And the news has to wait all day. The whole thing, of course, is in royal grimaces: the second week is given to athletics, and she only trusts her finals. Other monsters, primarily swimming, shooting, which the heart rejoiced in the morning for the whole week, as well as numerous missile species said goodbye to the Olympic torch to London. Some heavyweights, however, are still in service. For example, boxing and freestyle wrestling just unpack medal chests, but now the Olympic nozzles have fallen into a calm. Evenings, however, are languid in the “bird's nest”, and one of them is in the next report, but for now it's time to pay tribute to games with large balls - a class that does not seem the most privileged among Olympionics, but respect immensely.

If you leave aside tennis and badminton, eight games in the Olympic program. Four species can be called classic: basketball, volleyball, handball and water polo, and just in them, as a rule, there are Russian medal chances and even more so medal expectations. The rest for various reasons are included in the list of exotes: football - due to the fact that he is only half Olympic, hockey on the grass and baseball with his female variety of softball - due to the narrow -regional and distant orientation, finally, beach volleyball - in youth. Alas, for Russia this list suddenly replenished this time a once glorious water polo: the men did not climb Beijing at all, and the women's team, which gathered a lot of prizes on the eve of the Olympics, suddenly went to the bottom in the Beijing basin.

The rest are floundering for this time, sorry for the sharp wording. However, there are two serious exceptions. This is the women's handball team Evgenia Trefilova and the male volleyball Vladimir Alekno. But first I state, somewhere apologizing that nothing shines on the rest. It is especially disappointing for European champions of basketball players who were simply not ready for Beijing. The handball players also put themselves on the line of failure, and even a dashing victory on the last day over the leader of the group - Korea - did not guarantee anything. A particularly confident performance in the playoffs. As one great football coach once remarked correctly, you can accidentally lose the world forum, but you can’t win. The basketball players and volleyball players performed in the group as a whole stronger, but declare defeat of the former from Australia with a difference of 20 points or two punctures of the second at the start in matches with Italy and Brazil leave only theses such as “what” or “hope” or “hope dies the last”. But two teams with hopes are still all right.

Both halls - handball and volleyball - are not built for games, but involved. There is no newfangled Olympic splendor, and they play handball in the hall cleared from ping-pong tables. True, thanks to the cosmetic repair and selection of design details, the spirit of games instill in you at the very moment when you cross the threshold. And the public, even on handball, about which the Chinese generally heard little a few years ago, is enough. And for us, the situation is highly pleasant.

In a decisive reconnaissance match, the Trefilova team played with Magyars. It was completely difficult: Hungary is always stiffness, and she has a star that can, if not solving the outcome of any match, then turn in his direction any segment of the game, - Anna Gerlitz. And the joy that Russia answered this opponent with a star game of the team, which did not become less bright even after a short injury to Irina Poltoratskaya.

As a result, the Russians of the Hungarian national team brought a huge gap of 10 goals and at that very moment, in fact, took first place in the group. And the gloss with which the main favorites of the tournament - Norwegian, as it seemed to me, were a little faded when the former and future table tennis are left left in the Mikst -zone. Only in the eyes of a half in his eyes did joy mixed with anxiety, but when she saw even more anxiety in the eyes of journalists, Ira literally hastened to comfort: “Everything is fine, a small bruise, it will definitely pass until the quarterfinals.” By the way, Poltoratskaya played and, in the last, already not really solving a group match with the German, she cherished herself a bit, but it is clear that she will be ready to Norway and Romania, which will be on the way to the medals.

There was no spoon of tar and in the volleyball hall, which is equipped, like a dozen Olympic arenas, in the sports hall of one of the many Beijing institutes. Here, in the “Capital Gymnasium”, however, nothing had to be taken out: volleyball in principle in China is much more developed, and the hall is more here (by the way, did you see a palace of 8 thousand seats somewhere in our university?), And almost constantly. In this setting, Russian volleyball players did not hold the first place in the group, losing the last group match of Poland on Monday. It’s a shame in the end to stay behind the Brazilians, who were so famously removed in four parties a week ago. But by and large there is no difference, anyone to get in the quarter -finals. The volleyball that the Alekno team shows in Beijing obliges to go to any match from the standpoint of strength. True, this seemed to have prevented this with the Poles - they took too much from the place in the quarry (25:17 in the first batch with an equal status rival - overkill), but now we will blow into the water, and that's it. One of our players, Yuri Zhezhko, who is still a little lacking of leadership charisma, but who is able to sweep away any defense from the site, pronounces in the Micst Zone: “It’s not the Poles won with us, we lost it to them. But we will not give anything superfluous to anyone else. ” With that and prepare for the playoffs.

XXIH Olympic Games

Volleyball

Men

Group a

Bulgaria - Venezuela - 3: 1 (23:25, 25:19, 25:16, 25:22)

China - Italy - (17:25, 25:23, 21:25, 25:20, 14:16) USA - 8 (4)*, Italy - 9 (5), Bulgaria - 8 (5), China - 7 (5), Venezuela - 6 (5), Japan - 4 (4)*.

Japan - USA - 18.00 (layout result)

Team position:

Group c

Brazil - Germany - 3: 0 (25:22, 25:21, 25:23)

Russia - Poland - 2: 3 (25:17, 24:26, 26:24, 23:25, 12:15)

Serbia - Egypt - 3: 0 (25:16, 25:13, 25:17) Cuba - Serbia

Team position:

Brazil - 9 (5), Russia - 9 (5), Poland - 9 (5), Serbia - 7 (5), Germany - 6 (5), Egypt - 5 (5).

Women

Group a

Cuba - Venezuela - 3: 0 (25:20, 25:20, 25:19)

USA - Poland - 3: 2 (18:25, 25:21, 19:25, 25:19, 25:13)

China - Japan - 3: 0 (26:24, 25:16, 25:14)

Team position:

Cuba - 10 (5), USA - 9 (5), China - 8 (5), Japan - 8 (5), Poland - 6 (5), Venezuela - 5 (5)

Group c

Kazakhstan - Algeria - 3: 1 (25:18, 25:20, 17:25, 25:16)

Brazil - Italy - 3: 0 (25:16, 25:22, 25:17)

Russia - Serbia - 3: 0 (25:21, 25:16, 25:20)

Team position: Brazil - 10 (5), Italy - 9 (5), Russia - 8 (5) , Serbia - 7 (5), Kazakhstan - 6 (5), Algeria - 5 (5)

Quarterfinals

Russia is China

Japan is Brazil

USA - Italy

*Games will be held 19.08

China - Croatia - 22:33 (13:17)

Poland - France - 30:30 (16:13)

Team position:

Iceland - Egypt - 32:32 (14:17)

Germany - Denmark - 21:27 (12:15)

The position of the teams: South Korea - 6 (5), Iceland - 6 (5), Denmark - 6 (5), Russia - 5 (5), Germany - 5 (5), Egypt - 2 (5).

Angola - Kazakhstan - 24:24 (16:14)

Norway - Romania - 24:23 (12:11)

Hungary - South Korea - 22:33 (11:19)

The position of the teams: Russia - 9 (5) , South Korea - 7 (5), Hungary - 5 (5), Sweden - 4 (5), Brazil - 3 (5), Germany - 2 (5).

Romania - Hungary

South Korea - China

Norway is Sweden

Quarterfinals*

Russia is France

China - France - 21:18 (9:10)

The position of the teams: Norway - 10 (5), Romania - 8 (5), China - 4 (5), France - 4 (5), Kazakhstan - 3 (5), Angola - 1 (5).

Group c

Sweden - Brazil - 25:22 (14:11)

Russia - Germany - 30:29 (16:14)

Quarterfinals

(the draw will be later)

Women

Group a

Russia - South Korea - 29:22 (17:12)

France - 9 (5), Poland - 7 (5), Spain - 6 (5), Croatia - 6 (5), Brazil - 2 (5), China - 0 (5).

Group c

Handball

Men

Group a

Spain - Brazil - 36:35 (20:17)

*Games will be held 19.08

08/18/2008 / Alexander Shmornov / Beijing Material published in the newspaper No. 155 dated 08/19/2008.