Translated material
Killer Bazooka
Kolodinsky and Barsuk won silver at the World Championships
Belgorod pair Igor Bazuka Kolodinsky - Dmitry Barsuk achieved the highest success in the history of domestic beach volleyball. At the World Championships that ended in the Swiss city of Gstaad, the Russians won silver medals. Previously, our teams at official top-level competitions under the auspices of the International Volleyball Federation (world championships, Grand Slam and World Tour stages) have never achieved the right to play in the decisive match. Kolodinsky and Barsuk did the almost impossible, but they were no longer enough to fight for gold - they lost to the Americans Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers with a score of 14:21, 16:21.This season alone, Igor and Dmitry made it into the quartet of the strongest tandems at the stages of the World Tour five times, but could not overcome the semi-final barrier. At the World Championships in Gstaad, this finally happened. Although the tournament started off alarmingly for the Russians. They suffered a sensational fiasco in a duel with the Czechs Michal Biza and Martin Lebl, seeded 43rd out of 48 participants. However, the Belgorod team quickly corrected itself, defeating teams from Italy and Estonia in their preliminary stage group.
In the 1/16 finals, the Americans Matt Fuerbringer - Sean Scott (21:17, 21:18) were defeated, at the next stage our beachgoers defeated the Dutch Emil Borsma and Bram Ronnes (21:16, 21:16), and then again took topping the US duo Jake Gibb - Sean Rosenthal (21:19, 21:17). In the historic semi-final, Australians Andrew Schacht and Josh Slack fell another victim to the wards of Italian specialist Marco Solustri, who was invited to cooperate by the vice-president of the All-Russian Volleyball Federation Gennady Shipulin, who is responsible for the development of this discipline in the country (21:13, 21:19). At the end of the first game, Kolodinsky delivered a series of killer serves, thanks to which the Russians took four points in a row.
By the way, the nickname Bazooka was assigned to Igor thanks to the light hand of the world's most titled player in the world of whiplash, Olympic champion of Athens Emanuel. Kolodinsky serves in such a way that the speed of the ball after his hits reaches a fantastic figure of 110 km/h. Even in official FIVB press releases, the former “classic” from Lokomotiv-Belogorye began to be called Bazooka. In this case, comparison with a light dynamo-reactive anti-tank grenade launcher is very honorable. As for the Badger, he prefers to be a Bars, and this is the word written on his playing shorts.
The main sensation of the men's tournament in Gstaad was the absence of Brazilians, trendsetters in this sport, on the podium. Emanuel Rego, along with Ricardo Santos, after losing to Dalhausser and Rogers, lost to the Australians in the match for third place (17:21, 19:21). The remaining Brazilian teams withdrew from the race in the previous two stages.
The World Cup ended in complete triumph for the Stars and Stripes, who, as a rule, skip most stages of the World Tour, preferring to compete in the commercial North American series. In the women's competition, reigning Olympic champions Misty May-Trenor and Carrie Walsh defeated the Chinese Zhi Tian - Zhi Wang (21:16, 21:10) in the main match. The bronze medal was taken away from Switzerland by Brazilians Juliana and Larissa. In the competitions of the weaker sex, everything turned out naturally - the couples “seeded” under the first four numbers advanced to the strongest quartet. The current European champions Natalya Uryadova and Alexandra Shiryaeva dropped out of the fight in the 1/16 finals. Roman Arkaev and Alexander Kuzmichev showed the same result.
It is difficult to even find an analogue in which other Olympic sport the Russians have made such a sharp, stunning, qualitative leap in the shortest possible time. Even at the Summer Games in Athens, our country was not represented at all - not a single pair was able to qualify for the World Tour. And today we are already annoyed by the misfire in the final match of the world championship. The game could have turned out more successfully for the Russians. They took the lead in both the first and second games, but several strange decisions by the Brazilian referee and the amazing luck of the Americans, who were repeatedly “played along” by the rope, turned the tide of the match.
After the 2004 Olympics, the head coach of the Russian men's national volleyball team, Gennady Shipulin, had to leave this post against his will. For some reason, winning bronze was not considered an achievement, and changes were required. Shipulin was left to lift a whip that was completely unfamiliar to him, and the position of “helmsman” of the national team was taken by Zoran Gajić. Now we can finally summarize those rearrangements. At the 2006 World Championships, the “classics” under the leadership of the Serb frankly failed (seventh place), and on the beach we had a unique tandem Kolodinsky - Badger, who yesterday received the well-deserved status of the second team on the planet.