Golden youth

Belarusian athletes won a rich haul of medals at the 3rd CIS Games

The 3rd CIS Games finished in Azerbaijan. For 13 days, athletes competed for medals at the multi-sport event. Each day the Belarusian team’s piggy bank was replenished with various medals as the Games gave many bright moments and revealed a host of promising athletes.

Opening ceremony of 3rd CIS Games was bright

Stars in action 

The CIS Games are still very young competitions, having taken place only for the third time in history. In 2021 they were held in Russia’s Kazan, in 2023 the tournament successfully took place in Belarus, and now, for nearly two weeks, attention was fixed on the Azerbaijani arenas. When the Games were hosted by our country, it was decided to make them open — invitations to participate were extended to athletes from non-CIS countries as well. This time, the organisers chose to follow the same path — in Azerbaijan you could see athletes from Türkiye, Pakistan, Oman, Cuba and Kuwait… Young athletes fought for medals in almost every discipline, with competitions across 23 sports. Yet, stars of global scale also shone at the Games.
One of the most representative line-ups at the 3rd CIS Games was in trampoline, where Belarus was represented by two-time Olympic champion Ivan Litvinovich, Paris 2024 Olympics silver medallist Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, World Cup stage runner-up and multiple European champion Yana Lebedeva, who recently joined our team from Russia. The Belarusians made a splash: out of seven possible gold medals they took six.
If not for the competition rules, which allowed only one representative per country in the individual trampoline finals, the men’s podium would have been exclusively Belarusian. In qualifying, the best result was posted by Ivan Litvinovich, followed by Andrei Builou and Stanislau Yaskevich, with Sebastsyan Stankevich rounding out the top six. Among the women, the best results in the qualifiers were from Yana Lebedeva and Katsiaryna Yarshova, while Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya and Zlata Miniakhmetova finished fifth and sixth, correspondingly. Thus, both Litvinovich and Lebedeva reached the final, and both finished on the podium. Ivan Litvinovich’s bid for the highest step was halted by an error in the closing, most difficult sequence. He took silver, behind Azerbaijani Magsud Mahsudov. As for Yana Lebedeva, she had no equal in the women’s individual trampoline final.
Litvinovich and Lebedeva also contributed to other successes of the Belarusian team. They helped our trio win gold in the team event: Yana Lebedeva stood on the top step of the podium with Katsiaryna Yarshova and Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, while Ivan Litvinovich was joined by Andrei Builou and Stanislau Yaskevich. The Belarusian athletes also shone in the final disciplines of the programme. Lebedeva and Yarshova clinched gold in the women’s synchronised trampoline, while Litvinovich and Builou celebrated victory in the men’s synchronised trampoline. Stanislau Yaskevich and Katsiaryna Yarshova were the best in the mixed synchronised trampoline.   
“Of course, it would have been nice if our trampoline athletes had won seven gold medals, but it did not quite happen. The competition is over, and the world championship awaits us. I would not like to discuss the slip-up by Ivan Litvinovich all over the country. He tries his best and will delight everyone at the international forum,” Olga Vlasova, Head Coach of Belarus’ national trampoline team, summed up the results of her team’s performance.  
  
Belarusians were represented in 21 sports — football, swimming, taekwondo and more

What a harvest! 

Not only the trampoline gymnasts contributed significantly to the Belarusian team’s medal harvest at the Games — judokas, wrestlers, taekwondo athletes, and representatives of many other sports delivered solid performances as well. Rowers — kayakers and canoeists — were among the last to join the fight for medals. On the very first day, having won eight medals, our athletes showed they were fully ready for the tournament. On the second day they added another seven medals to the tally, with some athletes stepping onto the podium more than once. Thus, Emil Abalmasau, the son of Belarusian Olympic champion Aliaksei Abalmasau, who competes in canoeing, climbed the podium three times: he posted the fastest time in the men’s single 200m event and, paired with Heorhi Varazhun, secured gold in the duo events over 200 and 500 metres.
Belarusian swimmers also performed strongly in Ganja — they claimed 35 medals at the multi-sport tournament, including 4 golds, 15 silvers and 16 bronzes. At the airport the team was greeted as true heroes — representatives of the Belarusian Swimming Federation, relatives and friends of the athletes, and journalists came to congratulate them.
Usevalad Sarakavik, who became the author of Belarus’ first gold at the Games in Azerbaijan and later won another three medals at the multi-sport event, admitted that he did not expect such results himself, “There are some mistakes that will need to be discussed with the coach, but overall I am pleased. Each medal is valuable to me, because winning them required a lot of effort and hard work. The level of competition at the Games was high, especially from Russia. Their team included strong athletes who show commendable results. It was really interesting to compete against them.”
Another winner of the 3rd CIS Games in our team, Mikita Lyakh, said that the competition at the CIS Games was even tougher than at the European Youth Olympic Festival held a couple of months earlier in Skopje, North Macedonia. Yet, according to the athlete, the Games will be remembered not only for results but also for excellent living conditions and a friendly atmosphere.
Andrei Lipnitsky, Head Coach of Belarus’ national swimming team, watched the swimmers’ performances in Azerbaijan with great interest. He noted that the team is improving with every competition — a worthy replacement is growing up that will soon be able to challenge the stars of the national team. “We are very pleased with the swimmers’ performances. If we compare these results with those at the 2nd CIS Games held in Belarus two years ago, where our swimmers won only one gold medal, now there are four. This shows that we have quantitatively improved our results,” Lipnitsky pointed out. “The guys did a great job and fought in every discipline. It is a pity that, due to sanctions, we were not able to participate in the world and European Junior Championships — they simply did not grant us visas. However, the results shown by the team at the European Youth Olympic Festival and at the 3rd CIS Games prove that we do not give up easily and that we have more to surprise our rivals.”

  
















By Tatiana Pastushenko