SPORT The Minsk Times Thursday, February 14, 2013 11 Hockey players fail to reach Olympiad Belarus’ national hockey team won’t be playing at the Olympic Games in Sochi, having lost unexpectedly to Slovenia at the qualification tournament hosted by Danish Vojens Alexei Ugarov tries to outrun the Danish players Rasmus Nielsen (left) By Dmitry Baranovsky Problems began for coach An- In the fi rst match against the matches in the qualifi cation round, riod, aft er which our Danish hosts drey Skabelka’s team even before Slovenians, Razingar’s penalty shot, beating Ukraine (6:0) and Den- had plenty of opportunities to Th e Slovenians weren’t con- the tournament commenced, as exact shot by Rodman and Mikha- mark. However, the Slovenians score. Only the confi dent actions of sidered favourites, as their leader, Chelyabinsk Traktor forward An- lev’s disallowed puck resulted in turned everything on its head, de- goalkeeper Vitaly Kovalev helped Anže Kopitar, was absent, having drey Kostitsyn — a true leader in Slovenians’ becoming leaders, fol- feating the Danes and taking the the team hold its victorious score. joined Los Angeles aft er the end of the squad — was dismissed for lowed by the Danes. “We need Sochi ticket. Belarus’ victories over Sadly, this won’t infl uence the tour- the NHL lockout. Th e Danish hosts missing training. Goalkeeper An- to win our remaining matches,” Ukraine and Denmark counted for nament standings or our Olympic seemed a more formidable rival, drey Mezin was also couldn’t help mused Mr. Skabelka. “Th e Sloveni- nothing. prospects. We can only hope that whom Belarus anticipated lock- his team, but the coach stresses ans are likely to make a false step Belarus won its last match less our squad will be able to use its ing horns with. Meanwhile, the that these were not the root cause and we’ll be able to correct the situ- confi dently than was expected. ‘spare’ time effi ciently, in prepara- Ukrainians appeared to be outsid- of our loss. Sadly, the results are ir- ation.” Stepanov scored the decisive puck tion for the IIHF World Champi- ers in our group. reversible. Belarus won its remaining at the beginning of the third pe- onships, hosted by Minsk in 2014. Already in 1/8 finals By Igor Leshin lenkov four, Maxim Babichev three national team, Sergey Rutenko, is and Ivan Brovko one. to play against Belarus with a team Dinamo Minsk handballers In the fi rst round of the com- comprising many players from the achieve fi fth victory at petition, Sergey Bebeshko’s squad national squad of Spain, which re- Champions League Group welcomed the Croatians to Minsk’s cently won the World Champion- Stage Sports Palace in October 2012. Th e ship. In the 8th tournament game in result was a 27 all draw. Moreo- At present, the tournament Group D, the Minskers defeated ver, the Belarusian squad defeated standings in Group D are as follows: Croatian Zagreb in an away match Swiss Schaffh ausen — 33:23 (at Barcelona — 14 points across seven — 23:25 (14:10). Th e latter team home) and 33:28 (away), Hungar- matches, Dinamo — 11 points in 8 includes six bronze prize winners ian Puck — 29:24 (at home) and matches, Berlin — 10 points from from the recent World Champion- German Berlin — 31:41 (at home). seven games, Schaffh ausen 4 points ship in Spain, but failed to live up Th e team also suff ered two defeats: in eight matches, Puck — 4 points There are no Belarussian biathletes among prizewinners yet to their promise before the crowd from Berlin — 25:29 and Spanish across eight matches and Croatian of 9,000. Barcelona — 24:25. Zagreb — 3 points from eight Dinamo, which has already en- Dinamo Minsk handballers games. Humble beginnings sured a ticket into the 1/8 fi nals, have two games still to play: Puck Th e four best teams from each saw Pavel Atman score six goals, in an away match on February 16th of four preliminary groups will By Igor Grishin positions, fi nishing 25th. Nadezhda as did Sergey Onufrienko; Denis and Barcelona at home on February enter the Champions League play- Skardino did best among the Belaru- Rutenko scored fi ve, Dmitry Niku- 21st. Th e leader of the Belarusian off s. Biathlon World Championships sian biathletes in the pursuit, fi nishing start well for host country, with in 15th place. Czech team taking bronze, Th e head coach of the Belarusian Long-awaited and behind Norway and France women’s team, Klaus Siebert, tells us, Th e Belarusian team, represent- “During the sprint, at the shooting ed by Nadezhda Skardino, Darya range, the situation was not easy; the Domracheva, Yevgeny Abramenko wind was blowing in diff erent direc- needed victory and Sergey Novikov, took 11th place tions and Darya, coming to the line, among 27 teams in the mixed relay. looking at the distant fl ags for guid- By Yegor Glebov which is led by Žalgiris Kaunas, At the fi rst stage, Nadezhda Skardino ance rather than those close by. As a with 13 victories over 14 matches; missing one target shooting prone, result, her correction aft er her fi rst After 13 defeats in a row in VTB CSKA Moscow has 11 victories and the leader of the Belarusian mirror was also false and produced Single League, Tsmoki Minsk from 13 games. squad, Darya Domracheva, missed just two hits.” basketballers achieve fi rst In the next round, Belarus’ three times from a standing position. Nadezhda Skardino performed victory champions will face CSKA in Yevgeny Abramenko hit every target very well in terms of shooting, being Andrey Krivonos’ trainees an away match and will finish while Sergey Novikov, who took the in great shape. achieved their first victory on the group stage with three home fi nal leg, missed once while shooting Aft er three disciplines in the February 10th, defeating Lithua- games: VEF Riga on February prone. overall standings of the World Cup, nian Neptūnas from Klaipeda 28th, Žalgiris on March 10th and In the individual races, Ms. Dom- Darya Domracheva, with 538 points, at Minsk-Arena — 93:71 (24:17, Czech Nymburk on March 24th. racheva made fi ve misses in the sprint, retains second place behind the 24:19, 20:18, 25:17). American Samara’s Krylya Sovetov leads fi nishing outside the top 40, who re- leader in the fi ght for the Big Crystal legionary Tierre Brown, 33, who Group A jointly with St. Peters- ceive points for the World Cup. Th is Globe: Norwegian Tora Berger (775 is new to the team, was the best burg Spartak, Khimki and Kazan- Ater Majok attacks rivals’ basket was Darya’s worst of the season and points). Close behind are Ukrain- shooter on the Minsk squad, earn- based UNIX: all have achieved left her in a poor position (43rd) for ian Olena Pidgrushna (531), Miriam ing 23 points. ten victories. each group will go through to the the pursuit race. Despite having the Gössner from Germany (529), Kaisa Despite this success, the squad After finishing the group tour- 1/4 finals; the clubs ranked 3-6th fastest speed on the track and only 4 Mäkäräinen from Finland (528) and remain in 10th place in Group B, naments, the two best teams from will play in the 1/8 finals. misses (1+1+1+1), she climbed just 18 German Andrea Henkel (518)..