Belarusian tennis player Dmitry Zhirmont wins international Paf Open Tallinn tournament, with a prize fund of $10,000
In the decisive match 26 year old Belarusian, ranked 295th in the ATP rating, defeated Belgian Clement Geens (positioned 428th) who was seeded fourth at the tournament. In the first set Dmitry lost (4:6) yet managed to turn events around and win two sets in a row — 6:4, 6:0.
In the semi-final Dmitry Zhirmont confidently beat Russian Yevgeny Tyurnev (ranked 724th) — 6:2, 6:0.
Rise in FIFA rating
Belarus’ national team up 28 positions in International Federation of Association Football rating, now ranked 70th
In October, Belarusian footballers played two final selection matches for the 2016 European Championship, beating Slovakia away (1:0) and drawing against Macedonia (0:0). Alexander Khatskevich’s team now boasts 479 points. 209 national squads are ranked by FIFA, with the next rating released on December 3rd. Belgium is topping the ratings, above world champions Germany, and the 2014 World Championship runners-up, the Argentineans.
Good place in medal standings
Belarusian athletes win 12 awards at 20th WACO World Championships, in Belgrade
Andrey Khamenok, Yevgeny Telitsa and Yekaterina Kovaleva all took gold, with the latter also claiming a special award for ‘best low-kick wrestler at the World Championship’.
Silver went to Piotr Romankevich and Artur Isayanets while bronze medals were claimed by Yelena Leshkevich, Sergey Skiba, Yelena Muratova, Yuri Zhukovsky, Pavel Shelest, Maxim Spadarenko and Timur Mamedov.
The head coach of the team, Mikhail Stepanov, notes that all athletes have demonstrated their determination. He tells us, “Experienced athlete Yuri Zhukovsky was injured in the first fight so we tried to discourage him from continuing. However, being a true fighter, he pushed himself for two more matches and claimed bronze.”
The tournament featured 1,987 athletes from 66 countries. Belarus was represented by 27 kickboxing masters and was ranked 5th in the medal standings overall.
By Igor Grishin
Start of the season is almost near at hand
Belarusian men’s and women’s national biathlon teams set off to Finnish Vuokatti for training
This year, both squads will be training until November 18th; afterwards they will move to Kontiolahti which will host the final preparation stage for the season. The training camp in Finland involves Nadezhda Skardino, Nadezhda Pisareva, Anastasia Duborezova, Anna Sola, Irina Krivko, Maria Panfilova, Dinara Alimbekova, Vladimir Chepelin, Yuri Lyadov, Dmitry Dyuzhev, Sergey Bocharnikov, Victor Krivko, Maxim Vorobei, Roman Yeletnov and Vitaly Kozlovsky. On November 25th, the team will go to Swedish Östersund to take part in the first stage of the World Cup that is launched on November 29th with supersprint mixed relays and mixed relays.
By Kirill Pirogov
