Ukraine's athletes earn 18 medals in Sydney

by Peter Shmigel
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

SYDNEY - Ukraine's sports program demonstrated its diversity during the second week of the Summer Olympic Games as its athletes won gold in men's skeet shooting, and silvers in women's trampoline and women's 800-meter freestyle swimming, as well as a silver in men's Greco-Roman wrestling.

There were bronzes in synchronized diving, triple jump and sailing won by Ukraine's women, plus boxing and long jump bronzes won by the men of Team Ukraine.

As of September 28, Ukraine's athletes had won 18 medals: three gold, seven silver and eight bronze and Ukraine was in 10th place in the overall medals count, in the same league as Romania and the Netherlands. Occupying the first four places in the medals count are the United States, Russia, China and Australia.

Mykola Milchev of Odesa shot perfect 25s in all five rounds of the skeet shooting competition to win gold on September 23 by one shot over Petr Malek of the Czech Republic. The experienced Mr. Milchev's performance equaled the current world record for the event. American Todd Graves came in third.

In trampoline - an event debuting at the Sydney Olympics - 27-year-old Oksana Tsyhuliova won a silver medal on September 22. She was beaten by Russia's Irina Karavaieva and trailed by Karen Cockburn of Canada.

Ms. Tsyhuliova hails from Mykolaiv, which is known as Ukraine's "trampoline capital," since the local aluminum plant there is the principal sponsor of most of the elite-level athletes of the sport on Ukraine. Ms. Tsyhuliova is the reigning World Cup champion in the event and had hoped to add her string of successes.

Triple jumper Olena Hovorova leapt out of a shadow on September 24 with a personal best to win bronze in that event. The gold medalist in the event was Bulgaria's Yereza Marinova; Russia's Tatiana Lebedeva took silver.

Despite a third place at the 1997 world championships, Ms. Hovorova, 27, of Kyiv had been consistently overshadowed by Ukraine's Inessa Kravets, who continues to hold the world record in the event and won the gold in Atlanta.

The 33-year-old Ms. Kravets did not contest the event due to chronic Achilles' tendon problems. Instead, she is saving herself for a head-to-head contest with Marion Jones of the United States in the long jump, where she has one of the longest qualifying efforts.

Other Ukrainians also jumped to glory. At the diving pool on September 23, longtime partners from Zaporizhia, Hanna Sorokina, 24, and Olena Zhupina, 27, took bronze in synchronized 3-meter springboard diving. The pair had previously held the title of European champions in the event.

Other medalists in that diving event were the Russian duo of Vera Ilina and Yulia Pakhalina (gold), and the Chinese pair of Guo Jingjing and Fu Mingxia (silver).

Also at the International Aquatic Center in Sydney, swimmer Yana Klochkova, who a week earlier had won two gold medals in the individual medley events, on September 22 took silver in the women's 800-meter freestyle. American swimmers Brooke Bennet and Kaitlin Sandeno took the gold and bronze, respectively.

Ukraine's Davyd Soldadze delivered silver in Greco-Roman wrestling (97 kg class) on September 26. Mikael Ljunberg of Sweden and Garrett Lowney of the United States, respectively, took the gold and bronze.

Boxer Serhii Danylchenko tied for the bronze in the men's bantam weight (54 kg) with Clarence Vinson of the United States. At press time the final match in that weight class had not yet taken place.

Bringing home a medal in track and field was Roman Schurenko who earned bronze in the long jump competition on September 28. He was bested by Ivan Pedroso of Cuba (gold) and Jai Taurima of Australia (silver).

And, in sailing, where Ukraine's chances of medaling were promising, the duo of Ruslana Taran and Olena Pakholchyk won bronze in the 470 class.

The winners of the 470 were the Australians (Belinda Stowell and Jenny Armstrong), while the United States (Jennifer Isler and Sarah Glaser) earned the bronze.

Roma Hadzewycz contributed to this report.

UKRAINE'S MEDALS AT A GLANCE

(listed by date)

September 16

September 18

September 19

September 20

September 21

September 22

September 23

September 24

September 26

September 28

TOTAL: 3 gold, 7 silver, 8 bronze

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 1, 2000, No. 40, Vol. LXVIII

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