Translated material
Sergey Bubka became vice-president of the IIAF
Chronicle of sporting events
Yesterday, at the congress of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) in Osaka, Japan, presidential elections took place. This post was again given to Senegalese Lamine Diack, who has held it since 1993. The next four-year term will be Diack's last as IAAF President. Legendary Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergei Bubka will serve as vice president for the next four years, along with American Robert Hersch, Englishman Sebastian Coe and Qatari Dahlan Al-Hamad.It is a gratifying fact for us that the President of the All-Russian Athletics Federation, Valentin Balakhnichev, was elected as a member of the IAAF Council. 166 of the 195 voting delegates voted for him.
“No representative of Russia has received such a large number of votes in the entire history of the IAAF Council elections,” noted Vladimir Rodichenko, a congress delegate and honorary vice-president of the Russian Olympic Committee. A total of 11 people were elected to the IAAF Council. Only the Japanese Katsuyuki Tanaka (170) received more votes than Balakhnichev.
The leaders of the Polish national team may not play in Moscow
The Polish volleyball team is experiencing noticeable personnel problems two weeks before the start of the European championship, reports volleyservice.ru. We have already told you that the team's best diagonal striker, Mariusz Włajlý, has left the team and is undergoing a medical examination in Barcelona and whose participation in the Euro is regarded as unlikely. They planned to replace him with Petr Grushka, who has considerable experience playing in this position. However, in the last match of the Wagner Memorial, which ended on Sunday, Grushka also suffered serious injury, which requires three weeks to heal. It is likely that this striker will not have time to recover before the start of the European Championship. In this situation, Robert Prygel, well known to our volleyball fans from his performances for the Surgut ZSK-Gazprom, received a good opportunity to play as part of his team at the European Championship starting on September 6 in Moscow. He was hastily summoned to the command's disposal. Vladimir ILYIN
They want to listen to Davydenko’s telephone conversations
The bookmaker Betfair and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) made an official request to check the telephone conversations and emails of Russian Nikolai Davydenko and Argentinean Martin Vassallo Arguello. These tennis players are suspected of participating in a fixed match. During the Davydenko-Arguello game, with the Russian winning the first set, many bets were placed on Betfair for Davydenko’s defeat. Having lost the second set, with the score 1:2 in the third, Nikolai withdrew from the competition, citing an ankle injury.
Bookmakers immediately suspended payouts on winning bets and hired two former Scotland Yard detectives to investigate the situation. Now they must confirm or deny the possibility of collusion between the two tennis players using transcripts of telephone conversations between Davydenko and Arguello. Andrey VDOVIN
"Siberia" and "Avangard" quarreled
The Sibir hockey club has been excluded from the participants in the traditional tournament in memory of Olympic champion Viktor Blinov, which will be held from August 26 to 29 in Omsk. It was originally planned that four teams would take part in the memorial - Avangard (Omsk region), Amur (Khabarovsk), Metallurg (Novokuznetsk) and Sibir (Novosibirsk). However, yesterday Avangard announced a sudden change in the composition of the participants and the tournament formula.
The official reason for the refusal was “the need to obtain additional time to organize matches of the Russia-Canada Super Series in the city of Omsk.” Unofficial - the conflict between the Avangard and Sibir clubs, which flared up in the finals of the tournament in memory of A. Belosokhov. At the very end of the final match, which was supposed to end in victory for the Novosibirsk team (4:2), 16 seconds before the final siren, Avangard head coach Valery Belousov led his team off the court. Then the Omsk residents did not attend either the traditional post-match handshake or the awards ceremony, at which some hockey players were supposed to receive individual prizes. So the leaders of Avangard protested against what they considered to be biased judging. A little later, Valery Belousov, in the presence of fans and officials, told the president of the Sibir club, Vladimir Nenakhov, that Novosibirsk residents should not come to Blinov’s tournament in Omsk, and the next day he was pleased with the decision to change the regulations and tournament grid. Konstantin IVANOV
Russia dropped one place
FIFA has published a new ranking of national teams. Over the course of a month, the Russian team dropped one position and now occupies 24th place. But this is one of the few changes at the top of the rankings. Compared to the July version, the top five remained unchanged - Brazil tops the list of FIFA teams, followed by teams from Argentina, Italy, France and Germany.
The Russians' closest rival in the European Championship qualifying round, the Macedonian national team, which Guus Hiddink's team will meet on September 8, is in 67th place. The England team, with which Russia is competing for access to the final part of the continental championship, is in 12th place. Another rival of the Russians, the Israeli team, settled in 33rd position. Andrey VDOVIN