This is how we excelled

The 2nd Winter Children of Asia International Sports Games were held in the Kemerovo Region from February 23rd to March 5th. Our athletes competed there for the first time, and the debut was successful: the guys won 11 awards — one gold, five silver and five bronze! After the athletes returned home, there was much to discuss, because the guys had accumulated a lot of emotions over the nine competitive days.

The first medallists of the Children of Asia Games — short track skaters Daniil Bychkov, Ksenia Lukashevich, Matvei Mager and Darya Stepanova


More than 850 athletes from 12 countries participated in the multisport forum. For most of them, Children of Asia was the first international competition in their lives. The level of organisation was spectacular: the tournament was held in four cities, the athletes lived in the Athletes' Village, and almost 400 journalists worked on the coverage of the struggle that unfolded on the ice, slopes and beyond! Even before the start, our guys had time to get acquainted with the region that hosted the competition — the organisers provided a tour of the significant places of Kuzbass, during which it was possible to inspect the coal mine and see the main sights of Kemerovo. But there is no time to relax: as soon as the opening ceremony died down, the athletes concentrated on earning awards.

Polina Sivets did a great job as the captain: she won gold and two silvers

Short track skaters Darya Stepanova, Ksenia Lukashevich, Matvei Mager and Daniil Bychkov won silver in the mixed relay. The number of awards won grew every day. In short track, our men’s quartet became third in the relay, and Daniil Bychkov won another individual bronze medal at a distance of 500 metres. Eva Bedritskaya won silver in ski jumping, and figure skater Vasily Borokhovsky became bronze medalist in figure skating, only two single skaters from Russia were ahead. Our skiers Konstantin Kaspierovich and Victoriya Zhemkova won silver and bronze in friendship relays, a trio of skaters consisting of Fyodor Danilov, Roman Chernyavsky and Radomir Minin won bronze in the team race... Let us particularly tell you about the representative of the speed skating team Polina Sivets. This girl became the flag bearer for the Belarusians at the opening ceremony of the competition, and after that brought her the only gold at the Children of Asia Games. Polina won silver in the first event — the 1500 metres race. But that was just a buildup before her signature distance — 3000 metres. On it, the Minsk resident performed simply brilliantly — 4 minutes 30.72 seconds and a new ice rink record! Later Polina confessed, “I thought about how to technically run the distance, spread out the forces. I am satisfied that we managed to show the same seconds as in Minsk, although our ice is faster.”
However, the competition did not end there for Polina: she won another silver in the mass start. As the coach of our skaters Ruslan Tobolich said after the competition, even before the start they set the task of winning at least four medals, and the guys did an excellent job!
Hockey players were not left without awards. Alas, in the team competition, the performance of the guys who got into the strongest group was not very successful. They lost to the teams of the Siberian and Ural Federal Districts at the preliminary stage, and to their peers from Kazakhstan — in the fight for the final fifth place. However, they were better in individual skill competitions: forward Matvei Shevtsov received the prize for the fastest lap.
Head of the delegation Vasily Yurchik thanked the organisers for the invitation after the end of the competition, “This is an invaluable experience for children who go in for sports, their first international tournament. Here the principle of struggle must be manifested until the end, until the last moment. Literally on the last day, the team’s ranking was replenished with two medals. The guys had a chance to win them, and they did not miss it. It is worth a lot when a child sees: any goal can be achieved. It is possible to show a high result, it is possible to take first place. Furthermore, it just takes a lot of work.”

Vasily Borokhovsky coped with the excitement and took bronze

At the closing ceremony, the participants of the 2nd Winter Children of Asia International Sports Games were greeted by the world dance champions 158 crew, the ballet of modern choreography Dance FM, the winner of the Voice show Dina Garipova and not only — the end of the competition turned out to be no less bright than the event itself. In addition, Director General of the Children of Asia Games International Committee Vladimir Maksimov noted, “These were the best winter games. But I think this is how it should be, we should develop. We see smiles in children, and this is the result of the joint work of many people. By the end of the competition, the athletes united and became one team, communicated and danced together. The competition was a success!”
However, Vladimir Maksimov met with the President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Belarus Viktor Lukashenko during the games. Maksimov shared: the arrival of our team in Kuzbass aroused great interest among fans, ordinary Siberians, who treat Belarus very warmly. Viktor Lukashenko, in turn, noted, “Participation in the Children of Asia Games is a great experience and necessary practice for young Belarusian athletes. It is important for athletes at this age to perform at this level. If you see our teams in the Children of Asia projects in the future, we will gladly consider these proposals.”

By Tatiana Litvinova