SPORTSLINE (07/28/02)

SPORTSLINE

Boxing

Following his June 29 technical knockout of Ray Mercer in the sixth round, Volodymyr Klychko set his sights on a bout with WBC, IBF and IBO heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. However, Lewis suggested he may retire from the sport before such a bout could take place. Lewis was quoted by the BBC as saying "Volodymyr Klychko - he's not tough enough. He's not ready for me yet. It would be a waste of my time to go and fight him - I would knock him out. I've already done everything that I really wanted to do in the sport of boxing, so I'm going to keep them guessing for a little while longer."

Klychko, the current WBO champion, has been hailed by many as the likeliest successor to Lewis.

Basketball

Ukrainian center Vitaly Potapenko was traded from the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics to the Seattle Supersonics on July 22 as part of a five-player deal. The 6-foot-10 Potapenko was originally signed by the Cleveland Cavaliers as the 12th lottery pick in the 1996 NBA draft. Since that time, the 285-pound Wright State University graduate has maintained a steady presence within the NBA. The 27-year-old "Ukraine Train," as his teammates refer to him, was born in Kyiv.

Tennis

Top-seeded Ukrainian Mykyta Kryvonos, 15, took second place at the United States Tennis Association Clay Court Championships, losing to Robert Cameron in the final on July 21 in Rockville, Md. Cameron, ranked 17th among USTA juniors age 16, convincingly upset Kryvonos by a score of 6-1, 6-1.

According to an article in The Washington Post, Kryvonos, currently ranked fourth on the USTA list, moved to America when he was 13 in order to find better competition. Now a resident of Flushing, N.Y., Kryvonos held the No. 1 spot in Ukraine from age 9 to 13.

Diving

Ukraine's divers combined for an overall team seventh place at the 13th FINA Diving World Cup in Seville, Spain, on June 25-29 with 133 points. China's 553 points more than doubled that of the next nearest competitor, Russia, who finished with 258 points. Australia took the third spot with 231 points.

Ukraine's Olena Zhupina took fourth place in the women's 10-meter platform competition. Her 307.71 points put her behind first-place finisher Lao Lishi of China (377.88), Soldati Kimiko of the United States (336.54) and Li Ting of China (323.55).

Zhupina again barely missed the medal platform, this time in the women's 3-meter springboard, when China's Guo Jing Jing and Wu Minxia took first and second places, respectively, with scores of 355.08 and 322.74. Australian Irina Lashko's 322.56 points gave her third place, while Zhupina finished with 313.53 points.

In the men's 1-meter springboard Ukrainian Yurii Shliakhov finished 12th behind gold medalist Xiang Xu of China. Xu won with 421.80 points, Alexandre Despatie of Canada took the silver medal with 407.79 points, and Spaniard Jose Miguel Gil took the bronze medal with 379.47 points.

Shliakhov and Dmytro Lysenko took eighth place with 295.83 points in the men's 3-meter synchronized springboard event. China's Tianling Wang and Feng Wang took first with 363.24 points, while Australia's Robert Newberry and Steven Barnett captured second place with a score of 341.85. The Russian team of Dmitry Baibakov and Dmitry Sautin took third place with a total score of 336.60.

In the women's 3-meter synchronized springboard event Ukraine's team of Olena Zhupina and Hanna Sorokina finished in seventh place with 276.87 points. Russians Vera Ilyina and Julia Pakhalina took first place with 329.31 points, Minxia Wu and Jing Jing Guo of China took second place with 328.65 points, and Ditte Kotzian and Conny Schmalfuss of Germany took third place with 305.25 points.

China's Liang Tian and Tong Yu Luo won the men's synchronized 10-meter platform competition with a final score of 353.31. The Ukrainian team of Roman Volodkov and Anton Zakharov finished fourth with 330.18 points, while Cubans Erik Fornaris and Jose Guerra took second with 342.72 points. Australians Mathew Helm and Robert Newberry finished third with 332.49 points.

Gymnastics

Team Ukraine finished sixth in the overall competition at the 2002 World Championships for Rhythmic Group Gymnastics in New Orleans, on July 10-14. Team Ukraine took the gold medal in the five ribbon event by beating Russia, which took second place, and Greece, which took third place. However, Ukraine finished fifth in the three ropes and two balls event.

In group rhythmic gymnastics five athletes per team work together during a choreographed performance passing various apparatuses such as ribbons, balls or ropes between themselves while performing gymnastic maneuvers within a 13-meter square mat. Athletes are judged on the composition and execution of routines with elements that include jumps, leaps, pivots, balance and flexibility movements.

In the first routine all five athletes use ribbons, while in the second routine competitors use three balls and two ribbons. In group rhythmic gymnastics the overall winner is decided by the combined scores of both routines.

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