Translated material
Leave from Chieti
The Russians reached the second stage of Euro 2007
The Russian women's team, after victories over Italy (60:55) and France (63:59) at the start of the European Championship taking place on the Apennine Peninsula, guaranteed itself access to the second stage.Russians at the championship are performing in the following composition: point guards and attacking defenders - Ilona Korstin (capital CSKA, former VBM-SSAU from Samara), Oksana Rakhmatulina (UMMC, Yekaterinburg), Ekaterina Demagina, Marina Karpunina (both Spartak, Vidnoye ); forwards - Olga Arteshina, Irina Sokolovskaya (both CSKA), Tatyana Shchegoleva, Svetlana Abrosimova (both Spartak), Natalya Vodopyanova (UMMC); centers - Maria Stepanova (CSKA), Ekaterina Osipova, Ekaterina Lisina (both Spartak). That is, after the leading Russian trio Rakhmatulin-Vodopyanov-Shchegolev left the capital's Dynamo in the off-season, the national team includes only players from teams that won the last national championship.
In addition to the French and Italy, our Group C includes the Greek team. Grudin’s wards are meeting with her today. Quartet “A” consisted of the current European champion Czech Republic, Israel, Turkey and Latvia, group “B” included Belgium, Romania, Germany and Lithuania, and quartet “D” included Belarus, Serbia, Croatia and Spain. The competition formula is identical to the recently concluded and victorious European Men's Championship for Russia. At the second stage, the three best teams from each quartet according to the “A+B, C+D” scheme form two new sixes, taking into account the results of the matches played among themselves at the initial stage, and then the quarter-finalists are identified.
For Russia and other favorites, which traditionally include the Czech Republic, Spain, and France, the championship will essentially begin with the quarterfinals. All of these teams are vying for medals, and the leadership of the Russian Basketball Federation has set a tough task for Grudin and the company: they are expected exclusively to win, which automatically means winning a ticket to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Teams finishing second through fifth qualify for the Summer Games in a global qualifying tournament involving a dozen teams vying for five spots.
In the match with Italy, once a continental giant, and now hosting the championship as a national team, which had previously failed to qualify for the final tournament of the Old World Championship three times in a row, our girls started with a surge - 9:2. The home team played catch-up for a long time and at the beginning of the final ten minutes they finally equalized the score. However, hits by ex-Dynamo players Vodopyanova and Rakhmatulina allowed Russia to go ahead again. Thanks to accurate free throws by Stepanova and the same Rakhmatulina, our team's advantage grew to 10 points, and the fate of the meeting was decided.
At the second stage, the Russians will no longer perform in Chieti, but in another small town - Vasto. But in the playoffs, if no sensations with a minus sign occur, they will return to where they started the tournament. By the way, at one time the A-1 series team “Villa Pini” Chieti was coached by the former coach of our team, Vadim Kapranov, and the 1992 Barcelona Olympic champion Elena Baranova performed under his leadership.