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Russia Swims Out of Crisis
The Russian team won 11 gold medals at the world swimming championships in Melbourne last week, showing it is overcoming a long-lasting crisis in Russian swimming. Meanwhile, America’s Michael Phelps broke five world records in Australia to collect seven gold medals but was short of one medal to surpass the record of the greatest swimmer of all time.
Russia won 24 medals at the world championship, 11 of them are gold, ranking second in the team’s competition after the United States. This is a real progress compared to the 4th place at the previous championships in Montreal.
The Russian synchronized swimming team once again proved that they are the one and only to lay claims on duet and team gold at the Olympics in Beijing. In open water, Larisa Ichenko and Vladimir Dyatchin won 10 km races which are among Olympic competitions. Elsewhere, Gleg Galperin Russia smashed China’s hope of a clean sweep in diving, winning a 10-meter platform on Sunday.
In swimming, Russia was 15th with two silvers and two bronzes. Up to the last day of the competition, Nikolay Skvortsov’s bronze in a 100-meter butterfly was the only one Russian swimming medal. Two silvers on Sunday are especially dear to Russian fans. 19-year-old Yana Martynova was second only to the great Katie Hoff, who broke a world record, and Yury Prilukov was not far from Poland’s Mateusz Sawrymowicz. Once invincible Grant Hackett was far behind.
Russia’s bronze in the 4x100 medley relay can never have been a reality if it hadn’t been for someone else’s mistake.
When the final day began, America’s Michael Phelps looked well on his way to passing Mark Spitz’s record and winning eight gold medals in a major meet. Earlier, Phelps won both freestyle relays and five individual events. The American, however, was robbed of his chance to eclipse Spitz’s seven medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, when his team was disqualified from the medley race after Ian Crocker left the blocks too early. Now Phelps hopes to surpass the record at next year’s Beijing Games.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 02, 2007
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