Posted: 07.04.2022 15:33:00

Gained understanding

Russia and Belarus will set up a joint handball league

Success is not about idle talks. To win, one needs to act decisively and confidently. World sport continues to fight in hysterics, trying to destroy Belarusian and Russian athletes, humiliate them and push them down: unprecedented removal of teams and federations from the international agenda continues. The weak would, of course, break from such pressure, but the strong would only harden and become stronger. Moreover, one has to fight against the insane faction, not alone, but together with a faithful ally.

A top level handball meeting was held in Moscow — the delegations of Russia and Belarus discussed a plan of joint action to overcome the current crisis. No one wasted one’s breath by speeches, and immediately switched to specific actions. From the side of the Belarusian Handball Federation (BHF), the meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Federation Vladimir Konoplev, his deputy, Olympic champion Andrey Barbashinsky, the chairman of the SKA Minsk Andrei Krainov and the head coach of the Belarusian youth teams Dzmitry Nikulenkau.
The delegation of the hosts was also impressive: The President of Handball Federation of Russia (HFR) Sergey Shishkarev was accompanied by Lev Voronin, a well-known handball player, now the Secretary General of the Federation, Sporting Director Dmitry Bocharnikov, known for playing for the HC Meshkov Brest, and many others. The result of a short and productive conversation were multiple very specific decisions all at once.
The first and most intriguing is the creation of a joint tournament. The Men’s handball league, of course, does not cancel the championships of Russia and Belarus, but successfully complements them. It will feature from six to eight clubs and will play the matches on the days of European cup competitions. A principle agreement on the creation of the league has been reached, only few issues need to be discussed — the working group of the HFR and BHF will soon pick up the candidates for participation and the layout for holding a new competition. A new tournament can start in September.
A top level handball meeting was held in Moscow — the delegations of Russia and Belarus discussed a plan of joint action to overcome the current crisis
Photo: www.rushandball.ru

It can already be said that this competition will attract a high interest among the fans. By tradition, Belarusian clubs will certainly not become mere observers. Let’s remember the hegemony of SKA Minsk in the USSR Men’s Handball Championship in the 1980s, and let’s not forget that it is Meshkov Brest, the team that is now the most venerable handball club among all the countries of the former USSR. There is no doubt that these teams will be the striking force and will become the face of the new league. HC Gomel and HC Masheka, by the way, could also test their strength in the new project — it would be a very exciting and rewarding adventure for the teams and their fans! Of course, Russian clubs will also benefit from participation in the new project. If we are talking about four participating teams from this side, then at the moment the quartet of leaders in the local Super League are: Chekhovskiye Medvedi, HBC CSKA Moscow, GC Permskie Medvedi and Saint Petersburg HC. There are a lot of great performers and true legends of  handball in these teams. The ‘Bears’ from Chekhov, for example, are led by the master of the handball Vladimir Maksimov, and two Belarusians, Artem Kulak and Andrej Klimovets, play for the club. CSKA also has a couple of players with Belarusian passports — Aliaksandr Padshyvalau and Aleh Astrashapkin. However, Pavel Atman, the leader of the ‘army team’, is well known for his performances for HC Dinamo Minsk and HC Meshkov Brest. The entire quartet of Russian clubs is a rather formidable force. But there are also HC Taganrog-SFEDU, HC SGAU-Saratov, Dynamo Astrakhan, clubs from Ufa, Stavropol and Krasnodar — a foothold for the future expansion of the league is quite decent. It is possible that the ladies will follow the path created by the men — there, too, the tournament can turn out to be very impressive, and our HC Gomel and BNTU-BelAZ Minsk Region have everything to compete with Russian HBC CSKA Moscow, Rostov-Don H.C., HC Lada from Tolyatti and HC Astrakhanochka. While things are being decided, the girls will begin rapprochement at the national level: at the end of April, Moscow might host a mini-tournament among the Women’s National Teams of Russia, Belarus, China and the Russian youth teams. Proposals are also being prepared for tournaments between Men’s teams of different ages. The participants of the handball meeting also paid attention to the joint development of children and youth handball. Coaching master classes, exchange of experience and joint training camps will also be the areas of co-operation between the federations. So, the game is already afoot!

From 2010 to 2017, the International Greco-Roman Wrestling Tournament in Memory of the Olympic champion Oleg Karavaev was held in a spectacular ‘wall on wall’ (line fight) team format in Minsk. At that time, only the teams of Belarus and Russia managed to win the tournament.

Other sports are not far behind. The Russian Wrestling Federation just announced the creation of a Poddubny Wrestling League professional wrestling league. The first tournament will be held in Moscow on May 19th-20th, and more than a thousand athletes from Russia, Belarus and other countries will take part in it (so far we are talking about representatives of ten states). They will compete on 18 courts in the Arena CSKA (VEB Arena) football arena, and the final matches will take place on one court in the 12,000-seat multi-purpose stadium of the VTB Arena. Competitions will be held in the format of a personal tournament in all weight categories in Olympic styles of wrestling (freestyle wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, women’s wrestling), as well as in rather specific grappling and pankration. Cash rewards will be given to the winners and runners-up, as well as the top three teams overall. As reported, the organisers have provided a record prize fund! The hosts of the competition have already confirmed that they will announce all the strongest wrestlers at the tournament, which means that these competitions are unlikely to be inferior to the world or European championship in terms of their level. After all, it’s no secret that Russian wrestlers (especially freestyle wrestlers) are a true world elite, any tournament without them is like a dish without salt. So the big question is who wins and who loses from kicking them off the world carpet.

Sergey Shishkarev, President of the HFR:
“I think it will be a very interesting tournament, no less exciting than European competitions.
We will use this time to train the reserve and reach a new level. A plan has been put into action. The task is to start a tournament according to the international standards, in compliance with sports principles, popular and aimed at improving the skills of handball players of the two fraternal countries.”

By Sergei Kanashits