Victoria Azarenko Remains at Top of World Rankings
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SPORT The Minsk Times Thursday, January 31, 2013 11 Grabovski opens score By Igor Grishin Belarusian Toronto forward Mikhail Grabovski delivers puck and makes goal pass in victorious away match against Pittsburgh, opening his personal score in the newly opened NHL Championship Th e NHL reopened on January 19th, aft er the lock- out ended. Mikhail Grabovski had failed to score in his two previous matches, leading the coaching staff to shuf- fl e players. American James van Riemsdyk, 23, took the place of Canadian Clarke MacArthur and joined the Belarusian hockey player and Russian Nikolay Kulemin. Van Riemsdyk moved from Philadelphia to Toronto last summer, creating a successful trio and taking part in three goals so far. Grabovski struck Victoria Azarenko, 23, defeats Chinese Li Na, 30, in the final match at Rod Laver Arena court in Melbourne gold in the 46th minute, with a shot from the right faceoff spot, and earned an assistant point during another attack Victoria Azarenko remains in the 27th minute. Meanwhile, Nashville Belarusian forward Sergey Kostitsyn, has earned 2 (0+2) at top of world rankings points in his fi rst three NHL matches (with ‘+1’ plus-mi- By Dmitry Baranovsky proved extremely dramatic. she took a misstep and fell dent and she announced, “I’m her 15th title and retains her nus statistics). Li Na initially took the badly, hitting her head on happy, although the match number one seed ranking, as Chinese Li Na, 30, faced initiative, winning the fi rst the court’s surface. However, was long and complicated. Li well as $2.5m in prize money. Ms. Azarenko in the fi nals set 6:4. Th e second set lasted aft er a short break, she re- Na gave me a great game. I’m By winning in Australia, she Youngsters of the Open Tennis Champi- nearly an hour and saw Aza- turned, showing strength of very pleased that, aft er all that has shown that she is a true onship, hosted by Australia’s renko reassert herself. In the nerve and character. Li Na happened to me in this tour- leader in women’s tennis. improve Rod Laver Arena. Despite the third, a real fi ght ensued, with played well but eventually nament, I managed to play Victoria is the eighth tennis Belarusian being viewed as Li Na leading 3:1 early on. conceded victory to Ms. Aza- my best, concentrating on the player to defend her title at their the favourite, having defeated Aft er having endured ankle renko — 6:3. tennis. I like to fi ght.” the Australian Open and has mastery Serena Williams, the match problems in the second set, Victoria’s delight was evi- Victoria is celebrating no plans to retire! Belarusian skier Yury World Handball Tournament Astapenko comes 28th in 15km race at Junior World Ski Championships in Czech Republic gives some food for thought Belarusian skier Yury As- tapenko has fi nished 28th in Th e defeat by Germany in the 1/8 the 15km Junior Freestyle In- fi nals left our team failing to qualify dividual and U23 World Ski for the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Championships, hosted by Th e Belarusian team reached MAZ-SPORTavto team is pleased with Czech Liberec. His result is this stage for the second time this participation in Rally Dakar-2013 the best for junior age Belaru- year, 18 years later, despite their sians in the two races so far. young age. Spartak Mironovich, who Alongside Astapenko, still heads the team, cannot conceal No easy Dakars three more Belarusian skiers his optimism, saying, “We still have a By Igor Leshin took part in the men’s 15km rather young national squad so 16th freestyle for under 23s: Pavel place at the World Championship is Belarusian MAZ-SPORTavto team returns Maruga came 55th, Alexander rather pleasing. Th e match against home with two racing crews in truck class Voronov fi nished 58th and the Croatians has raised some ques- having successfully fi nished Dakar-2013 Mikhail Tsygankov was 74th. tions regarding our style of play but Th e fi rst crew, comprising Alexander Vasi- Russian Sergey Ustyugov won we hope to reach the top ten at the levsky, Valery Kozlovsky and Anton Zaporosh- the event, with a time of 35 next tournament or, even, reach the chenko, took 21st place overall while the sec- minutes and 44.1 seconds. In Olympics. We don’t have too many ond, driven by Sergey Vyazovich, navigated by total, the competition brought players but if we work well, we may Pavel Garanin and including mechanic Dmitry Belarusian handballers have beaten only Saudi Arabian team together 83 athletes. fi nd the task achievable.” Zaporoshchenko, came 27th of 60 cars reaching Women in the U23 cate- By Kirill Pirogov had little chance of success, but Th e current head of the team, the fi nish. gory skied 10km freestyle but performed well. Yuri Shevtsov, agrees with his col- Commenting on the results of the race, the the top 30 failed to include Belarus’ national handball In 1995, the Belarusian nation- league, telling us, “Th e champion- captain of the MAZ-SPORTavto team, Valery any Belarusians. Maria Nedy- team fi nishes 15th in World al handball team took part in the ship has shown us how we stand in Kozlovsky, notes that the fear of the unknown ukhina came 34th, Marina Handball Championship World Men’s Handball Champion- the world hierarchy and where our was less this year. “Th e team didn’t experience Ryzhankova fi nished 46th 1/8 fi nal, hosted by Spain, ship fi nals for the fi rst time, coming weaknesses lie, so we can plan our any major problems although we sometimes and Tatiana Koleda was 48th losing to Croatia — one of the 9th (although the match system was next step. We’ll continue and will lacked experience at certain stages. We did well — among 49 entrants. Ilona tournament’s favourites diff erent at that time). Th e result was eventually be beating our rivals. Th is in the desert but found the mountain roads Mikhailova failed to reach the Croatia, the recent Olym- considered to be a failure, especially task will be solved simultaneously more diffi cult; nevertheless, we did our best. fi nish. Victory was celebrated pic bronze medallist, proved a as those who performed under the with another: qualifying for the Eu- Before we enter Dakar-2014, we know which by Ragnhild Haga, from Nor- formidable opponent, while the guidance of newly appointed coach ropean Championship. In late March, areas to work upon. Preparations for the third way, in 27 minutes and 50.4 Spaniards fi nished second in their Spartak Mironovich had experience we’ll have another training camp be- race have already begun, modifying the trucks seconds. sub-group. Th e Belarusian squad of the EuroCup and the Olympics. fore meeting the Romanians.” for better performance.”.