Russia Won First Gold at Last
Thanks to the Greco-Roman wrestling victories of Nazyr Mankiev and Islambek Albiev, Russia has won the first gold medals, climbing from the 16th to the 8th place in the medal race at Beijing Olympics. The wrestlers will get $500,000 each, as exactly this amount was promised for China’s triumph.
The sport bureaucrats of Russia are breathing freely on the fourth day of Beijing Olympics. They had set the target of 30 to 35 gold medals and the first two were won yesterday. The heroes are the Greco-Roman wrestlers Nazyr Mankiev of Ingushetia, who triumphed in the 55kg wrestling match, and Islambek Albiev from Grozny, the Chechen Republic, who was the best in the 60kg competition.
For Mankiev and Albiev, the Beijing gold is the highest career achievement. So far, these two wrestlers could have boasted of the Europe’s success and of the bronze of last year’s world championship. But the wrestlers performed above praise in Beijing and the award will be ample. Apart from the general recognition, they will get $500,000 each in addition to ˆ100,000 promised by Russia’s government.
Businessman Suleiman Kerimov, who heads the Trustee Board at the Wrestling Federation, promised to pay exactly 0.5 million green for Olympic gold. What’s more, the amount will double to the magic $1 million if the wrestlers win at least ten gold medals.
The performance of Russians without such generous sponsors as Kerimov wasn’t particularly inspiring yesterday. Arkady Vyatchanin won the bronze in backstroke, while the weightlifting hope of Russia Svetlana Tsarukaeva suffered complete failure.
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All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 13, 2008
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