1_January 6, 2002 - The Ukrainian Weekly
1_January 6, 2002 - The Ukrainian Weekly
1_January 6, 2002 - The Ukrainian Weekly
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38 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, <strong>2002</strong><br />
No. 1<br />
2001: THE YEAR IN REVIEW<br />
pionships on July 30 in the 400-meter freestyle in<br />
4:07.30. She was trailed by Claudia Poll of Costa Rica,<br />
who swam a 4:09.15.<br />
Oleh Lysohor of Ukraine won the talent-laden men’s<br />
50-meter breaststroke in 27.52 seconds, beating out<br />
Roman Sloudnov of Russia, who was a close second at<br />
27.60.<br />
Roman Volodkov and Anton Zakharov of Ukraine<br />
took third in the men’s synchronized platform diving on<br />
July 26 in Fukuoka. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Ukrainian</strong>s earned a score of<br />
336.06, just shy of Eduardo Rueda and Fernando Platas<br />
of Mexico, whose 336.63 points earned them silver.<br />
Tian Liang and Hu Jia were comfortably in first with<br />
361.41 points.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> <strong>Ukrainian</strong> Big League (age 16-18) champion<br />
baseball team from Kirovohrad won the European<br />
Baseball Championship and went on to represent<br />
Europe in the Big League World Series in Easley, South<br />
Carolina, in August.<br />
<strong>The</strong> big-leaguers got off to a rocky start in South<br />
Carolina, losing their first game in a 10-0 decision to<br />
Venezuela in which they could muster only two hits and<br />
committed five errors. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Ukrainian</strong>s also fell to<br />
Canada, squandering a four-run lead to lose 8-7.<br />
Ukraine’s only victory came after receiving new equipment<br />
donated by Easley residents and local businesses,<br />
defeating Saipan 6-5. Ukraine finished with a 1-3 overall<br />
record in the World Series tournament.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Little League (age 11-12) team from Kirovohrad<br />
won the second annual Little League Championship of<br />
Ukraine, and represented their country in the European<br />
Little League Championships in Kutno, Poland, in<br />
August. Unable to match the success of their Big<br />
League counterparts, they posted a 2-3 record and never<br />
made it to the Little League World Series in<br />
Williamsport, Pa.<br />
<strong>The</strong> success of the <strong>Ukrainian</strong> big-leaguers capped a<br />
benchmark year for baseball in Ukraine. In 1991, youth<br />
baseball was played only in Kyiv and Lviv; today it is<br />
played in 16 oblasts and in four different age categories<br />
in Ukraine.<br />
Much of that success is due to the efforts of Basil<br />
Tarasko, who first became involved with <strong>Ukrainian</strong><br />
baseball in 1991 when the Soviet Union’s Committee of<br />
Physical Culture and Sports asked him to work with the<br />
Pobutovik Baseball Club in Kyiv. His initial six-week<br />
visit paved the way for 19 more visits over 10 years in<br />
which he helped to make the <strong>Ukrainian</strong> youth baseball<br />
program able to compete with any in Europe. He is now<br />
the coach of the <strong>Ukrainian</strong> national teams.<br />
• <strong>Ukrainian</strong> sprinter Zhanna Pintusevich-Block took<br />
gold in the women’s 100-meter dash at the IAAF World<br />
Championships in Athletics on August 6 in Edmonton,<br />
dethroning the reigning Olympic champion, Marion<br />
Jones of the United States, who had not lost a 100-meter<br />
final in four years.<br />
Pintusevich-Block, the 1997 champion in the 200<br />
meters, outran Jones in both the semifinal and final<br />
races, leaving critics no opportunity to call the race a<br />
fluke.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 29-year-old former Kyiv resident, who lives in<br />
Tennessee with her husband, American track and field<br />
agent Mark Block, took an early lead in the final and<br />
continued to pull away from Jones in the last 20 meters,<br />
finishing in 10.82 seconds. She then fell to her knees<br />
and wept, unable to contain herself after having beaten<br />
the one woman she had chased all season.<br />
“I cannot really believe I won,” she told the New<br />
York Times. “I have been running well the whole season,<br />
being really close to Marion, so I knew everything<br />
is possible. But only when I beat her did I realize I can<br />
actually do it.”<br />
Although the loss was Jones’ first in 42 races, she<br />
refused to believe that it was any indication that she is<br />
slowing down. In fact, her time of 10.85 was one of her<br />
season’s best. “Of course I’m disappointed,” she said,<br />
“but I’m not a sore loser. I give all the credit to Zhanna.<br />
She was the better sprinter today.”<br />
With the win came redemption for Pintusevich-<br />
Block, who at the 1997 World Championships began to<br />
take a victory lap believing she had beaten Jones in the<br />
100-meter final, but collapsed in disappointment as the<br />
official results were broadcast, naming Jones the winner<br />
by .02 seconds.<br />
Two other <strong>Ukrainian</strong>s won medals at the IAAF<br />
Championships. Inga Babakova, the defending world<br />
champion, placed second in the women’s high jump on<br />
August 12. Hestrie Cloete won the event on a countback,<br />
with both athletes clearing 2 meters.<br />
Vita Pavlysh took bronze in the women’s shot put on<br />
August 5, hurling the shot 19.41 meters. She finished<br />
behind Yanina Korolchik of Belarus (20.61 meters) and<br />
Nadine Kleinert-Schmitt of Germany.<br />
• Three <strong>Ukrainian</strong> athletes from Kharkiv swept the<br />
women’s speed climb event at the 2001 Summer X<br />
Games in Philadelphia on August 19, according to the<br />
Philadelphia Inquirer. Elena Repko won gold, setting a<br />
time of 15.04 seconds for the 60-foot wall. She was followed<br />
by Olha Zakharova, who won silver, and Olena<br />
Ostapenko, who took bronze.<br />
In the men’s speed climb, Maksym Stenkovoi of<br />
Nikopol took gold, with a winning time of 10.43 seconds.<br />
Vladimir Zakharov of Kharkiv took second.<br />
• CSKA Moscow goalkeeper Serhii Perkhun, a<br />
<strong>Ukrainian</strong> national, died on August 28, from head trauma.<br />
He had been in a coma since August 18, when his<br />
head collided with that of an opposing striker in a game<br />
against Anji Makhachkala.<br />
• Competing at the World University Games in<br />
Beijing on August 22 through September 1, Ukraine’s<br />
participants took a total of 34 medals – 13 gold, 14 silver<br />
and seven bronze – earning them fifth place overall,<br />
AP/Michel Lipchitz<br />
Sprinter Zhanna Pintusevich, in a file photo from 1997. On August 6 she beat American Marion Jones, the<br />
Olympic champion, in the 100-meter dash during the IAAF World Championships in Athletics.<br />
according to the <strong>Ukrainian</strong> News.<br />
Twenty-year-old Tamara Yerfeyeva captured four<br />
gold and one silver in various rhythmic gymnastics categories.<br />
Yana Klochkova broke the University Games<br />
200-meter individual medley record of 2:14.22 set by<br />
Lin Li of China in 1991 with a time of 2:14.13.<br />
Klochkova’s time of 8:36.37 in the 800-meter individual<br />
freestyle also won her gold.<br />
Ihor Chervynskyi also set a University Games record<br />
with his time of 7:59.52 in the 800-meter freestyle.<br />
• Ukraine placed sixth among a field of nearly 50<br />
nations competing at the 2001 Goodwill Games in<br />
Brisbane, Australia, from August 29 to September 9.<br />
Ukraine won 14 medals, with three gold, five silver and<br />
six bronze.<br />
Yana Klochkova took two gold and two silver<br />
medals, placing first in both the women’s 800-meter<br />
freestyle and the women’s 400-meter individual medley<br />
events, while taking second in the 400-meter freestyle<br />
and 200-meter individual medley events.<br />
Tatyana Tereschuk Antipova took the third gold for<br />
Ukraine by beating American Tonja Buford-Bailey in<br />
the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.47. Zhanna<br />
Pintusevich-Block could muster only an 11.01 in the<br />
women’s 100-meter final, taking second place behind<br />
Marion Jones of the United States, whom she had beaten<br />
in the world championships earlier in the season.<br />
Jones blew away Pintusevich and the rest of the pack,<br />
running an impressive 10.84.<br />
In other track events, <strong>Ukrainian</strong>s Vita Palamar and<br />
Olena Hovorova won bronze medals in the women’s<br />
high jump and women’s triple jump, respectively.<br />
Other <strong>Ukrainian</strong>s winning bronze medals were<br />
Alyona Kvasha in the women’s vault; Anna Bezsonova<br />
in individual clubs, rhythmic gymnastics; Anna<br />
Sorokina and Olena Zhupina in women’s synchronized<br />
three-meter springboard and Oksana Tsykhuleva in the<br />
women’s trampoline.<br />
Oleksander Chornohos won a silver medal in men’s<br />
trampoline and boxer Serhiy Danylchenko saw a second<br />
place finish in the 54-kilogram category.<br />
• <strong>The</strong>re continues to be no shortage of <strong>Ukrainian</strong> representation<br />
in the National Hockey League (NHL). No<br />
less than 62 players with some <strong>Ukrainian</strong> background<br />
were listed on rosters submitted by the NHL’s 30 teams<br />
for the 2001-<strong>2002</strong> season.<br />
• Oleksander Beresh and Andrei Lipski of Ukraine<br />
finished in second and fifth place, respectively, in the<br />
men’s high bar event at the gymnastics world championship<br />
on November 4 in Ghent, Belgium.<br />
• <strong>Ukrainian</strong> Canadian hockey legend Dale<br />
Hawerchuk was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame<br />
on November 12. Mr. Hawerchuk, 38, was the 23rd<br />
player to reach the 500-goal mark in 1995-1996 and the<br />
31st player to record 1,000 points in 1990-91. His final<br />
career totals included 518 goals and 891 assists, totaling<br />
1,409 points and placing him 13th on the career NHL<br />
points list.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> <strong>Ukrainian</strong> national soccer team saw its World<br />
Cup <strong>2002</strong> hopes slip away as it lost to Germany 4-1 in a<br />
final qualifying match on November 14 in Dortmund,<br />
Germany.<br />
Ukraine had tied the Germans 1-1 in the initial leg of<br />
the qualifier in Kyiv, but folded under a barrage of three<br />
German goals in the first 15 minutes of the second<br />
match.<br />
A spoiled clear by Andrii Nesmachnyi in the fourth<br />
minute soured Ukraine’s situation, resulting in a<br />
German goal off a Michael Ballack header.<br />
Seven minutes later, <strong>Ukrainian</strong> goalkeeper Maksym<br />
Levytskyi stopped a Marko Rehmer header off a corner<br />
kick, but Oliver Neuville was there to kick in the short<br />
rebound. Rehmer added a goal five minutes later with a<br />
header off another corner kick, this time badly misjudged<br />
by the shaken Levytskyi.<br />
Germany continued its dominance into the second<br />
half with a Ballack header off a cross from Neuville in<br />
the 51st minute, putting the <strong>Ukrainian</strong> squad’s hopes<br />
even further out of reach. Ukraine’s only response<br />
came in the last minutes of the game, when forward<br />
Andrii Shevchenko, ranked as the ninth best player in<br />
the world by FIFA, soccer’s international governing<br />
body, netted a goal off a Serhii Rebrov forwarding<br />
pass.<br />
• Ukraine’s <strong>2002</strong> Winter Olympics squad has struck a<br />
deal to train at world-class ski resort to prepare for the<br />
upcoming games in Salt Lake City in February.<br />
Laryssa Barabash-Temple, the U.S. attaché for the<br />
National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and its chief<br />
coordinator for preparations in Salt Lake City, said<br />
she had succeeded in getting the world-renowned Sun