SPORT The Minsk Times Thursday, December 13, 2012 11 Everything shaping up Darya well now Domracheva Minsk’s Stroitel volleyballers successfully kick off Challenge Cup play-off s, beating challenges Dinamo București in 1/16 fi nals at Minsk’s Sports Palace The Romanian volley- all leading ball players initially led in the first two sets, but Bela- rus proved stronger, with scores of 25:21 and 25:20. positions The third finished with an even more confident win of 25:17. Belarusian biathlete takes first A place in the 1/8 finals place in sprint during second will be determined by a return match between the stage of , Belarusian champion and Romanian championship held in Austrian Hochfilzen bronze medallist Dinamo By Yegor Glebov Due to adverse weather, București; the winner will some leading skiers were go on to the next round, Over a distance of 7.5km, placed later in the start list facing either Greek Olym- with two sets of shooting, by their coaches — includ- piakos or Bulgarian Lev- boasted ing the overall World Cup ski. a time of 22 minutes 24.7 favourite, Norwegian Tora Belarusian Grodno seconds: ahead of her near- Berger. Naturally, Darya Kommunalnik is also play- est rival, Kaisa Mäkäräinen was concerned for her main ing well in the Challenge of , by 4.7 seconds. rival’s performance but she Cup, defeating Greek Aris Norwegian managed to keep her lead, in the 1/16 finals (3:1). The took third place. as Ms. Berger made a mis- return match is being host- Ms. Domracheva took take at the second shooting ed by Greek Thessaloniki, her first lap unusually slow- range and lacked enough Darya Domracheva tops sprint results with the winner to play ly and then made a mistake speed to rise above third reer. Belarusian Anastasia of two stages of the World 15km and in the 10km pur- either French Rennes or on her first shoot, leaving place. Duborezova was 36th (with Cup, the leader of the Bela- suit (first stage in Swedish Russian Urals, depending the range in disappointing Another two Belarusian 3 faults and a speed of 1 rusian team, Darya Dom- Östersund); and gold in the on who claims victory. 23rd position, 38 seconds athletes reached the top 40: minute 46.7 seconds). Irina racheva, is in second place 7.5km sprint (second stage behind the leader, Polish Nadezhda Skardino (+40.2 Krivko, 21, took 42nd place; overall, with only Norwe- in Austrian Hochfilzen). So Krystyna Pałka. However, seconds) who was without her speed (+ 1 minute 57.2 gian Tora Berger ahead. far, Darya has 244 points, Dinamo in the second half of the a shooting fault, shared 7th seconds with no misses) This season, Ms. Dom- while Ms. Berger has 282; race, she sped up and, after place with Slovenian Teja was her best in the sprint racheva has taken three the top three is closed by heading for flawless shooting at the sec- Gregorin, having given the to date. World Cup individual med- Russian , play-offs ond range, took the lead. best sprint result of her ca- Following the results als: silver in the individual with 172 points.

Dinamo handballers BATE’s final note continue in Champions Useful lessons can League Group Stage, strikes minor chord facing Bundesliga team Berlin in the seventh be learnt from defeat BATE has been knocked Th e Germans, in turn, round out of the Champions took advantage of their rivals’ One of ’s lead- League, playing its last embarrassment to score twice ing squads was viewed as By Igor Leshin group stage match in just 11 minutes. Initially, a favourite. Their defeat of in Munich — against Bastian Schweinsteiger passed their strong rival (31:24) Dinamo hockey squad Bavaria from the penalty line to Th o- has given Dinamo a place in aim to return to true form Th e Borisov team’s sensa- mas Muller, who scored. Later, the play-offs. After a shaky start to tional win over the German leg- the Munich team scored again, Early in the game, Ber- the season, leading to head ends in the previous match add- when Xherdan Shaqiri received lin seized the initiative and coach Kari Heikkilä from ed intrigue to the game but, this a pass from Mario Gomez and led until the 22nd minute, Finland losing his position, time, Bavaria confi dently won outmanoeuvred Maxim Bor- when Sergey Bebeshko’s the Minsk team are being — 4:1. Victor Goncharenko’s dachev, heading the ball home. trainees managed to equal- guided by Alexander An- players began reasonably well, BATE scored once, when ise. By the break, they were drievsky. Their luck is yet making just one error in the defender Yegor Filipenko’s en- one goal up and, in the sec- to change however. After a fi rst half which, eventually, re- try onto the pitch led to a suc- ond half, kept their guests sensational defeat by Avto- sulted in a German goal. In the cessful kick from the penalty at bay, bringing their ad- mobilist, ranked last in the 22nd minute, Bavaria’s Swiss area. Unfortunately, Bavaria vantage to seven goals by championship, the team Xherdan Shaqiri approached had already scored four times the final minute. Dinamo’s partially redeemed itself the penalty line from the left , (the last by David Alba) so the Ukrainian legionary Sergey against Yugra. Sadly, their dodging BATE defender Denis outcome of the match was a Onufrienko scored the most match against Avangard Polyakov before passing to the foregone conclusion. goals, with nine accurate Omsk (for whom national centre. Mario Gomez then Aft erwards, Alexander Hleb shots, followed by Mon- forward Sergey Kostitsyn promptly sent the ball into An- stressed that BATE should look tenegrin Vasko Ševaljević plays) led to another hu- drey Gorbunov’s net. back on its Champions League

with five and Denis Rutenko miliation. Unfortunately, BELTA BATE had the chance to season as valuable experience. and Dmitry Nikulenko, each Kostitsyn indirectly helped Dinamo Minsk play Dinamo Riga remedy the situation early in “Th e team has many talented with four. the rival team score in the rusian squad missed 17 six matches after a ten day the second half, when Jérôme players but their only practise The victory is the fourth second half, when Frolov pucks across three match- break in the CHL Champi- Boateng was sent off for kick- is in ’ championship, in a row for Dinamo, who and Piganovich scored the es. Therefore, before the onship, facing Neftekhimik ing Borisov forward Artem which tends to be rather weak. have beaten Pick and twice second and third goals us- home match against Dina- Nizhnekamsk on Decem- Kontsevoy’s leg. However, the If it were more challenging, defeated Swiss Schaff- ing his passes. The match mo Riga, the coaching staff ber 19th, Cherepovets’ head coach admits, “Sadly, we we’d develop more quickly and hausen. The Minskers are finished with a confident focused on reliable defence Severstal on December lost our way aft er receiving this be ready for intense matches currently ranked third in win by Avangard of 5:3. and managed to evoke a 22nd, Donetsk Donbass on advantage. I can’t help thinking like those in the Champions their group, behind Barce- After Avangard, the response from the players; December 27th, Spartak that we’d have been better off League. Nevertheless, BATE is lona and Berlin (having lost Minskers faced a frustrat- the team beat D-namo Riga Moscow on December 29th playing with a full eleven play- moving in the right direction, to Berlin early in the tour- ing defeat from Kazakh — 2:1. Dinamo Minsk will and Dinamo Riga again on ers on each side. Our nerves got although with modest steps,” nament). Barys — 2:7. The Bela- continue its home series of January 3rd. the better of us.” he said.