Russia's Dinara Safina, left, Elena Dementieva, center, and Vera Zvonareva, right, are shown during the awarding ceremony at Beijing Olympics. The Russians won all medals in the women's tennis single competitions.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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The Court of Honor
Past weekend proved rather fruitful for the Olympic squad of Russia. We added 12 medals, four golds, four silvers and four bronzes to the national medal-box Saturday and Sunday. Our girls won all medals in the women’s single tennis competitions, while Gulnara Galkina-Samitova triumphed in the women's 3,000m steeplechase athletics with the world record.
Russia’s added 12 medals in the past weekend, having climbed to the 3rd place in their overall number. We have 31 medals now, including seven golds vs. 61 (35) medals of China and 65 (19) medals of the United States. Our today’s rival is Australia with its 29 medals overall and eight golds.
Russia’s Tennis Federation was the first to meet the Olympic target thanks to the stunning success of the girls. Two Russians, Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina clashed in the final yesterday. Safina took the first set and was on the way to Olympic triumph, but Elena recovered from the nervous collapse in the second one and prevailed 3-6 7-5 6-3. Another Russian, Vera Zvonareva earlier ended tennis Olympic hopes of China by beating Li Na for bronze.
Another success of Russia was the 3,000m steeplechase athletics victory of Gulnara Galkina-Samitova and her world record of 8,58.81. Julia Pakhalina won silver in the women's 3m springboard at the National Aquatics Center. Our fencing team defeated USA at the women's team foil gold medal final at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and Varlery Borchin finished first in the 20km sports walking. Borchin dedicated his gold to all disqualified sportsmen of Russia.
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All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 18, 2008
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