Translated material
Hot sand
At the stage of the Russian Championship in Volei Grad they played at plus 50
The third and final stage of the main series of the national championship took place on the sand courts of the Russian national teams' training base "Volei Grad" in the village of Vityazevo, Krasnodar Territory, near Anapa. In the history of our beach volleyball, this tournament turned out to be the hottest in the literal sense of the word - the air temperature often reached plus 50 degrees Celsius, and on one of the days of the competition a record plus 52 was recorded. The final tournament of the national championship is ahead, which will be held here on 2 --September 5. We can only hope that the heat will subside by this time.In Vityazevo itself, which does not at all resemble a village (this is the official status, although in fact it is a Black Sea resort town), during the days of the stage, even in the shade, the temperature constantly exceeded plus 40. In the open space, including in a specialized stadium for beach volleying , the heavenly office exchanged fifty dollars. The leadership of Volya Grad tried to make life as easy as possible for the participants - the players were provided with large containers of ice and soft drinks, the volleyball players were periodically hosed down with cold water, and even showers were installed directly in the mixed zone. The panel of judges closely monitored the condition of the athletes and could suspend the competition at any time at their request, but everyone was eager to fight and were ready to play in the most extreme conditions.
“We deliberately did not measure the temperature at the stadium - we did not want to fall into emotional shock,” tournament supervisor Oleg Remizov told a Vremya Novostey correspondent. “Although I knew: here it’s plus 50 or more.” Chairman of the VFW beach volleyball council Andrei Gorbenko, in connection with the extreme heat, recalled an incident from his sports biography: “Before, in the mid-1990s, we went to international tournaments without the necessary equipment, there were no special socks, and now at the “hot” stage in Marseilles, France, I burned all my feet so that the skin peeled off.” On the penultimate day of the tournament, Gorbenko held a working meeting to prepare for the September final of the Russian Championship and raised the issue of purchasing additional, more powerful refrigeration equipment for ice production.
True, 2006 European champion Alexandra Moiseeva (Shiryaeva) admitted that it was hotter at the Games in Beijing two years ago. Being in Vityazevo, it was difficult to believe it. The dark-skinned volleyball player of the Russian national team, Juditte-Flores Yalovaya, who, it would seem, at the genetic level (her father is Angolan) should stoically endure such heat, received a heatstroke, almost losing consciousness. Yalovaya and her partner Yana Kiseleva continued the fight, and the girls were rewarded for their patience with bronze awards and a special prize from the organizers “For the will to win.”
It is symbolic that following the results of the women's tournament, two Victorias rose to the top step of the podium - Rastykus and Demirchova. This success was somewhat unexpected, because Rastykus’s regular partner Daria Yarzutkina (they are the winners of the recent European Student Championship in Kazan) was unable to take part in the competition due to injury. Nevertheless, the experience of Demirchova, who has been competing in the Russian Championship for more than a decade, helped her win in the new combination.
“Silver” went to Moiseeva, who recently returned from maternity leave, and her teammate from the VC “Twisted Ball” (Sosnovy Bor) Ekaterina Syrtseva, who was on the podium of such a tournament for the first time. Moiseeva, a participant in the Beijing Olympics, is gaining shape at a rapid pace after the planned break, but, as it turned out, she is not yet on the radar of the head coach of the Russian national team, American Dane Selzhnik. “I don’t know him, he didn’t talk to me, and probably if he passes by, he won’t even recognize him,” said Alexandra. Selzhnik is currently betting exclusively on Maria Bratkova - Evgenia Ukolova, Anastasia Vasina - Ekaterina Khomyakova, who played on the World Tour these days.
The men's team was somewhat surprised by the victory of the tandem Roman Arkaev - Alexander Sokolov. Arkaev, who has been through fire and water in this sport, is already 40 years old, he lives in Norilsk and is considered the northernmost professional whip will player in the world. Based on logic, playing in tropical heat should not be his trump card. At the second stage of the championship in the village of Yantarny, Kaliningrad region, Arkaev won silver in tandem with Yaroslav Koshkarev, but last week he played the Grand Slam tournament in Austria with Igor Kolodinsky. The return to action of Kolodinsky’s more familiar partner Dmitry Barsuk (in this combination they became vice-world champions in 2007 and played in Beijing) did not take place in Vityazevo. It was assumed that Dmitry would play with one of the young guys from VC Volya Grad, but the consequences of his shoulder injury are still making themselves felt.
If at the usual stages of the Russian Championship 16 pairs play in the main draw, then in a month at the final tournament 24 teams of men and women will fight for medals. They will be determined by the club rating, which will take its final form ten days before the start of the competition, since the classification takes into account not only the points of the stages of the main series of our championship, but also the points earned in the World Tour.
Results. 3rd stage of the Russian Championship. Women. Final. Rastykus/Demirchova - Moiseeva/Syrtseva - 31:29, 24:22. Men. Final. Arkaev/Sokolov -- Belov/Dayanov -- 21:19, 21:16.