SPORT The Times Thursday, December 6, 2012 11 Retro is all Darya Domracheva the fashion By Igor Leshin

Dinamo Minsk hockey players has climbed the medals to play in retro-uniforms at Minsk-Arena on January 3rd Th e event will be dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Dinamo sports society — the country’s oldest and podium already twice largest. Th e design of the uniforms to be worn on January 3rd is based on samples worn by 1980s players. The current World Fans will be able to bid for hock- Cup has proven ey jerseys worn by Minsk Dinamo at auction and other events will be very special for dedicated to the anniversary. one of the leaders Hockey and handball clubs rep- resenting in the Continen- of the previous tal Hockey League and Champions season, Belarus’ League are developing under the top biathlete. The Dinamo Society. Dozens of Olympic medals and top international awards absence of German at tournaments in diverse sports have been won under the blue-and-white (the main contender Dinamo banners. who has claimed Dakar to test most world titles in recent years) left strength of Domracheva with a people and much better chance of success and a vehicles true opportunity to Belarusian MAZ-SPORTavto seize this year’s Big team in good form for Dakar- Crystal Globe. Darya 2013 rally — setting off from Peruvian capital of Lima, on is not concealing her January 5th, and fi nishing in ambitions. Chilean capital of Santiago, on January 20th

The mixed men’s relay began REUTERS Over recent months, the crew with the World Cup first stage in Darya Domracheva took second place at the women’s 15 km individual event in Ostersund has been undergoing intensive prep- Östersund and ended in a fiasco Norwegian . Russian started first, and it was no easy Moreover, our service crew had aration, fi ne tuning the engines of for Belarus. Vladimir Alenishko, Yekaterina Glazyrina, who came task to catch up. Unfortunately, a problems with its selection of the MAZ cars destined for the rally. who was in third place by the third, missed none of her targets miss at the third shooting range lubricants. I had no thoughts of Th e fi rst race car has a new cab and third round, failed to overcome but was two minutes slower than prevented Domracheva from outstripping Tora or anyone else, frame, with a new coat of paint and his nerves on the shooting range Domracheva. outpacing the Norwegian. Nev- just concentrating on my own lighter bridges to reduce its weight. and almost deprived his partners Darya faced worsening weath- ertheless, she finished a pleasing race. The season is long so I’ll Recently, two racing cars and two of any hope of a worthy place, er conditions in the sprint, while second. have plenty of opportunities to technical support cars arrived in leaving fans to pin their hopes on Berger (her major rival) missed After the finish, the Belaru- battle Berger in coming months.” the French port city of Le Havre, for the individual events. only once to Domracheva’s three sian complained that frosty con- The struggle promises to be technical inspection before depar- None were able to hamper misses. It was impossible to catch ditions had prevented her from difficult. After the first stage, Ms. ture for Latin America. Domracheva, who performed up an additional 0.5km of penalty skiing as quickly as she would Domracheva is ranked second in perfectly in the first race: the laps over just 7.5km, even for the have liked but that her absence the World Cup standings (144 15km individual. Despite two speedy Belarusian, leaving her in of gold victories would only spur points), behind Tora Berger, who misses adding two minutes to her a disappointing seventh place. her on. won three races in Östersund — time, she finished just one and a The Sunday pursuit saw Dar- “The weather was very icy the individual, spring and pur- half minutes behind the winner, ya 38 seconds behind Berger, who and my fingers became frozen. suit (180 points). Another high status for Sergey Rabchenko

Belarusian professional boxer defends European Th e MAZ-SPORTavto team has championship title at Arena in 12 round been training for the Dakar rally in the United Arab Emirates and are match against French Cédric Vitu and claims vacant due back on November 27th. Two Belarusian crews of three people WBC silver belt each are to take part. By Igor Grishin result is evident. I hope that I’ll first European championship title Paris has already hosted the soon have the WBC gold belt in on June 16th, 2012, after defeat- launch of the 35th Dakar race, with “I grew ex- my collection.” ing five-time British champion participants approved: 75 trucks, hausted, hav- He admits that the match and twice European champion, 155 cars and jeeps, 189 motorcycles ing trained for brings not only a title and belt but , in seven rounds. and 40 quads — 459 vehicles in to- around four experience. “This was valuable in Since then, he has trained hard to tal. months. Usually, you showing me how to continue for defend his title, coached by world MAZ-SPORTavto took part for need far less than 12 bouts to 12 rounds — something I’ve only star : his pro- the fi rst time last January, coming claim a win but my match was endured once before. I usually moter for over a year. Mr. Hatton 31st among 77 teams at Dakar-2012. moved from the 4th to 24th finish much earlier, in the sixth initially spotted Sergey’s great Th e crew at the fi nish line comprised November, which brought round at most. The meeting in talent and potential. Rabchenko driver Alexander Vasilevsky, naviga- three more weeks of intensive Manchester has shown me that I remains unbeaten in the profes- tor Valery Kozlovsky and engineer training. Of course, this influ- need to double my efforts.” sional ring, boasting 22 victories Dmitry Zaporoshchenko — all to enced my condition but the Sergey Rabchenko won his (with 16 knock-outs). participate again this time.