SPORT The Minsk Times Thursday, October 27, 2011 11 Finishing season in high Fencers spirits Maxim Mirny and Daniel Nestor win tournament in Shanghai demonstrate In China, Max and Dan- iel demonstrated brilliant play, yielding no more than five games during a match. The only lost high class set was the final one; fortunate- ly, this wasn’t fatal for the duo. Their well-considered strategy Belarusian men’s fencing team wins during the super tie-break helped them defeat French Michael Llo- first World Fencing Championship dra and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic silver in Catania — 3:6, 6:1 (12:10) to successfully finish the tournament. By Dmitry Komarov selection round ends (April 1st),” Their steady play over the notes head coach Maxim Logotko. season, and in Shanghai, has In the finals, Dmitry Lap- “Being ranked fourth allows us a enabled the ‘victorious’ duo to kes, Valery Priemko, Alexander fighting chance, and we think that qualify for the ATP finals in Lon- Buikevich and reserve Alexey we’ll face a weaker team to reach don a full one and a half months Likhachevsky lost to the Rus- the top eight. The only team like- beforehand. sian squad — comprising Nikolay ly to deprive us of a place at the Kovalev, Veniamin Reshetnikov, London Olympics is the French. Alexey Yakimenko and reserve They currently lag behind us by False step Pavel Bykov. The final score was 95 points.” 29:45. Beforehand, our team de- Dmitry Lapkes was most suc- at start of feated Canada 45:27, Romania cessful in the individual events at — 45:44 and Italy 45:43. Silver is the World Championship, occu- qualification the squad’s highest achievement pying seventh position and losing to date, with fourth place at the in the ¼ final to Luigi Tarantino, 2010 World Championships in 40, of Italy — who eventually round Paris their previous best result. claimed bronze. Valery Priemko Belarusian women’s national “We still have two tourna- was placed 23rd while Alexander handball team plays fi rst match ments to attend — in Moscow Buikevich finished 37th and Alex- REUTERS of 2012 European Handball and Beijing — before the Olympic ey Romanovich was ranked 42nd. Belarusian fencers don’t hide their joy of success Championship In the first match of the 1st qualification round, our national Victoria’s exhibition match Andrey squad lost in Frankfurt-am-Oder to Germany — 19:27 (10:15). Our One of world’s top tennis In order to share her tennis secrets announced her desire to join them. Kostitsyn team is now being coached by fa- players once again organises with almost a hundred children, the “It’s diffi cult to say whether Serena mous Belarusian Leonid Brazin- master class for novices number three seed had to abstain Williams’ decision to play as part chasing sky, while Valentina Yankovskaya A year ago, Azarenko surprised from the remainder of her seasonal of the American team will be bet- scored an impressive six times. Belarus with her exhibition match at calendar — including fi nal tourna- ter or worse for us,” noted Victoria records The qualifying matches of the the Sports Palace, playing tennis leg- ment (which the Belarusian might aft er the master class. “I know that continental tournament (the main end Danish Caroline Wozniacki. Af- reach both in doubles and singles it’ll be much more diffi cult to beat Montreal Canadiens’ forward event for our squad) are being held terwards, she promised to repeat the events, and with which quite ambi- the Americans but we have a strong, Andrey Kostitsyn achieves the in 2012. The two best teams from event. Th e two world tennis stars are tious plans are connected). friendly team, able to defeat serious success shown by Vladimir each group of seven go through to still planning their second ‘friendly’ Th e Fed Cup promises to be a se- opponents. Th ere’s some time before Tsyplakov (named Belarus’ the final stage, joining the current match in the Belarusian capital but rious examination of the Belarusian the match, so it’s now important for top ice hockey player in 1992, European champions — the Nor- Azarenko has already organised a team in February, since we’ll face me to perform well at the fi nal tour- 2000 and 2002) regarding the wegians, and the hosts of the final ‘master class’ for children at the Re- players from the USA. Azarenko’s nament and successfully fi nish the number of goal passes in NHL stage — the Dutch. The ultimate publican Tennis Centre in Minsk. old rival, Serena Williams, recently season.” regular championship matches matches are scheduled for De- At present, both boast 101 goal cember 2012. To date, Belarus has passes each, sharing second posi- reached the finals of the European BATE tion among Belarusian NHL play- Championship four times. ers, behind Ruslan Saley (who per- ished in September in a tragic plane loses to crash). Th e latter assisted 159 times Minsk awaits across 917 matches: an achievement likely to remain unbroken this sea- Milan yet son. Th e only other contenders are table tennis Mikhail Grabovsky (88 passes re- sulting in goals across 249 games) stars hopes for and Sergey Kostitsyn (75 passes Minsk is to host grand table across 237 matches). tennis 2011 INTERSPORT Remarkably, Andrey Kostit- Europe-Asia All Stars Series revenge syn and Vladimir Tsyplakov have In late October, a unique played 331 matches each in the match is scheduled for the Re- BATE Borisov footballers planet’s strongest league, to achieve publican Tennis Olympic Train- demonstrate encouraging play 101 goal passes. Th e former has ing Centre, involving world level at Champions League Group been with the Montreal Canadiens stars usually seen only at world Stage away match in the NHL championship for seven championships or the Olympic At their previous meeting, at GETTY IMAGES seasons, while Tsyplakov used to Games. The teams will comprise Minsk’s Dynamo Stadium, Barcelona BATE tries to demonstrate its mastery in match against Milan play for Los Angeles (1996-2000) the strongest masters from vari- defeated Belarus 0:5; this time, BATE the Belarusians’ play went downhill but Milan’s net was left out of reach and Buff alo (2000-2001). ous states: Vladimir Samsonov performed far more impressively, fast, with our team failing to keep once more. Kostitsyn’s ‘sniper’ achieve- (Belarus), Michael Maze (Den- deserving to score at least once. Th e possession of the ball. Th ey made “Today, we had a good chance ments are much weightier, having mark), Adrien Mattenet (France), Borisov players received a perfect repeated mistakes in their passes, re- of turning the game to our advan- delivered the largest number of Xu Xin (China), Gao Ning (Sin- chance in the 33rd minute, when sulting in most of the action taking tage,” noted BATE’s head coach, Vic- pucks (88); Tsyplakov boasts just gapore) and others. According to Dutch legionary Mark van Bommel place near our goal. BATE missed a tor Goncharenko, aft er the match. 69. Andrey Kostitsyn is now aim- organisers, it’s a serious step in lost the ball to BATE’s Renan Bres- second goal in the twentieth minute “However, we failed to use our op- ing for 100 delivered pucks, 200 re- the development of table tennis san near the goal. Th e Brazilian had before the match ended. Kevin Prince portunities. Milan’s level of play is so sultative points and the Belarusian in our country. Moreover, in fu- a tête-à-tête with Milan’s goalkeeper, Boateng’s kick, perfect in beauty and great that they can score even from forward record (currently belong- ture, a range of serious interna- Christian Abbiati, but failed to score. power, has reached the net from be- beyond the penalty area.” ing to Ruslan Saley — 204 points: tional tournaments are to be held Sadly, the Italian players then sent the yond the penalty area. Th e football Goncharenko’s squad will have 45+159). Andrey has earned 189 in Belarus, featuring top level ball to the back of the Belarusian net club from Borisov has met the Italian the chance to correct the situation points already: 88+101. He is just players. almost immediately. Aft er the goal, club for the third time in its history, in a return match in Minsk. 15 points behind Ruslan.