| The players played the first matches of the group tournament On the first day of the Olympic Games, our bitterness over the missed gold medals for the shooters was smoothed out to a small extent by the gamers. Basketball, volleyball and handball players won their first victories. A day later, the baton was picked up by water polo players, and only those on whom special emphasis is placed in team events - volleyball players unexpectedly lost to the Dutch team. So the picture was not complete.
There are no particular problems for competitive athletes in Athens. Maybe only water polo players feel a little stuffy in the indoor pool due to the understandably high humidity. The rest play in well-conditioned halls. Journalists and especially fans are another matter. If on Saturday, besides your correspondent, there was someone who wanted to sequentially tour all the arenas where our teams played, then you shouldn’t envy him at all. This pilgrimage for the ball is far from an easy task.
Let's start with the fact that all gaming arenas in Olympic Athens are located in four territories. And for some reason, in each of these territories only one of the sports that interests us is held. Therefore, it is necessary to leave the cool hall into the 35-degree heat, where after just ten minutes it is time to forget about the purpose of further movement. At the same time, there is not even a single stunted tree around, but there is more than enough dust and dirt.
The Olympic Games program was opened for Russia by volleyball players at the famous Piraeus Palace of Peace and Friendship. The tunnel leading from the metro to the arena was feverishly refined by tilers, and traces of their work were not removed even a day later. But in the hall itself, everything corresponded to volleyball standards, including the performance of our team in the match with the Dominican Republic. True, it was not possible to determine the true strength of the Russians from the match with this modest team - the strengths of the rivals were too unequal (3:0). One can only note the debut in the national team (and immediately at the Olympics!) of the 32-year-old - you will agree, a rare case - of St. Petersburg Olga Nikolaeva and the absence of team captain Evgenia Artamonova. Team coach Nikolai Karpol honestly warned that he would use it only in case of emergency. Injuries never cease to torment the long-time team leader.
After volleyball in the Faliro Coast sports hall, our handball players took to the court. Maximov's team confidently controlled the course of the meeting with the silver medalists of the last European Championship, the Slovenians, but still tickled the nerves of our fans. A couple of minutes before the end of the meeting, the comfortable four-goal gap was reduced to a minimum, besides, at that moment our team found itself in the minority, and the main lineman Dmitry Torgovanov, after three dismissals, watched the match outside the arena. Fortunately, everything ended well: the Slovenians themselves could not resist being rude, and our people punished them for it - 28:25.
The basketball players of the Russian national team were the first of our players to experience the pressure of Greek fans. Hence the nervousness and, as a result, not the most convincing advantage over the average home team - 69:62.
Water polo players tested the pool of the main Olympic complex yesterday morning together with the Kazakhstan team and won without any problems - 5:2. But the joy of this victory was overshadowed by the puncture of the volleyball players. This is not the first time that our team has been roughly punished by the Dutch, whose game has not changed much in the last two Olympic cycles. This means that the root of our failures is in the psychology of the players. This was noted in a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent by team coach Gennady Shipulin: “Why did Vadim Khamuttskikh take unnecessary risks in the fourth set we lost on serve? The lead was 21:18, and the game started to work out. And so they allowed the Dutch to raise their heads. And I can’t find any explanation for the failure of the most experienced Dineykin at the end of the match.”
The volleyball players have time to recover, fortunately tomorrow they will not play against the strongest Australian team, and the water polo players today will be the last of our teams to begin fighting for Olympic medals. The whole struggle is ahead.
Match results. BASKETBALL. Women. 1st round. Group "A". Russia - Greece - 69:62 (14:16, 17:18, 23:8, 15:20), Australia - Nigeria - 85:73, Brazil - Japan - 128:62. VOLLEYBALL. Women. 1st round. Group "B". Russia - Dominican Republic - 3:0 (25:17, 25:13, 25:16), Cuba - Germany - 2:3, China - USA - 3:1. Men. 1st round. Group "B". Netherlands - Russia - 3:2 (25:23, 17:25, 19:25, 27:25, 18:16). HANDBALL. 1st round. Men. Group "A". Russia - Slovenia - 28:25 (16:13), Spain - South Korea - 31:30, Croatia - Iceland - 34:30. WATER POLO. Men. 1st round. Group "A". Russia - Kazakhstan - 5:2. Vladimir STETSKO, Athens |
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