SPORTSLINE

Boxing

Former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Volodymyr Klitschko is scheduled to fight on August 30 in Munich, Germany, against Fabio Moli of Argentina. The fight will be the first for Klitschko since his loss to Corrie Sanders of South Africa on March 8. Klitschko, 27, has 40 wins and two losses while the 34-year-old Moli has 29 wins and two losses.

"We decided on Moli because he is a big, hard-hitting man," Klitschko's promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl said on July 17, according to the Associated Press. "Volodymyr needs a challenge to regain his confidence in the ring."

Meanwhile, Vitalii Klitschko was cleared to box by an independent medical expert on July 22, The New York Times reported recently. His June 21 fight with World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis was stopped after a doctor ruled that a cut over Klitschko's left eye obscured the boxer's vision.

The decision to clear the elder Klitschko makes the possibility of a rematch with Lewis strong. However, The Times reported on August 5 that Lewis passed up a lucrative December 6 rematch, although the possibility of a rematch between Lewis and Klitschko has not been ruled out and could happen in 2004.

"Lennox is taking a good, long, hard look at his career," Lewis's lawyer, Judd Bernstein said on August 4, according to The New York Times. "He's not ready to begin training and felt it was unfair for everyone to hang on to that date."

Rumors have also circulated that Lewis, 37, is considering retirement. "Lennox feels at this point he doesn't need the money and doesn't have anything to prove," Bernstein said.

"Lewis is a great champion," Vitalii Klitschko said in a statement from Hamburg, Germany. "But I have the feeling that he realizes how tough the fight against me really was, and how difficult the rematch will be."

Vitalii Klitschko has been talking about a rematch with heavyweight champion Lewis since a June 21 bout between the two fighters was stopped at the end of the sixth round. Lewis won the fight by technical knockout. "I am ready for the rematch that boxing fans around the world want to see," Klitschko said in a separate statement on July 23.

Klitschko received 60 stitches to close four separate cuts and healed in what many in the boxing world have called remarkably quick fashion.

"The skin is absolutely inconspicuous," Dr. Volker Steinkraus, a dermatologist, was quoted by The New York Times as saying after he examined Klitschko in Hamburg, Germany. "There is definitely no higher risk for a future injury than there was before the fight," the doctor said.

The New York Times also reported that Vitalii Klitschko said he would visit a specialist of Lewis's choosing so that he could get another shot at the heavyweight title.

Lewis, who had earlier expressed interest in fighting Roy Jones Jr., told a group of reporters on July 3 that he was "opting for a rematch."

Archery

More than 580 archers from 80 countries gathered in New York City on July 14-20 to compete in the 42nd World Outdoor Target Archery Championships. The finals were held in Central Park and decided eight world titles. The competition also determined who qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Six Ukrainians - three from the men's recurve team and three from the women's recurve team - qualified for the 2004 Olympics by reaching the final eight of competition. Ukraine's individual competitors failed to qualify for the upcoming summer games in Greece.

In the women's individual recurve competition Ukrainian Kateryna Palekha took seventh place, while South Korea's Mi-Jin Yun took the gold medal. South Korean teammates Sung-Hyun Park and Huyn-Jung Lee took second and third places, respectively. Ukrainians Yulia Lobzhenidze and Tetiana Dorokhova took 11th and 16th places, respectively. Natalia Burdeina of Ukraine finished in a somewhat disappointing 31st place.

Oleksander Serdiuk of Ukraine finished in 13th place in the men's individual recurve competition, while teammates Ihor Parkhomenko and Viktor Ruban finished in 19th and 45th places, respectively. Italy's Michele Frangilli won the event, and South Korea's Hyun Dong took second place. Australia's David Barnes rounded out the medal winners with his third-place finish.

Ukraine took eighth place in the men's team recurve competition, filling the final qualification spot for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. Powerhouse South Korea won the event, while Sweden took second place and Italy took third.

In the women's team recurve competition Ukraine earned a bronze medal, while South Korea took gold and Japan silver.

In an interesting sidenote, the first world championships in outdoor target archery date back to 1931 and were held in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which at the time was under Polish rule.

Track and field

Ukraine's Oleksii Lukashevych took first place in the men's long jump at the Norwich Union Super Grand Prix in Gateshead, England, on July 13. Lukashevych jumped 8.19 meters to beat Savante Stringfellow of the United States, who took second place with a jump of 8.10 meters. Kevin Dilworth of the United States jumped 8.09 meters and took third place in the event.

Ukraine's Olena Pastushenko took eighth place in the women's 100-meter event at the Norwich Union Super Grand Prix, finishing the race in 11.75 seconds. Torri Edwards of the United States took first place with a time of 11.46, and Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas took second place with a time of 11.48. Russia's Marina Kislova took third place with a time of 11.63.

Ukraine's Anzhela Balakhonova took seventh place in the women's pole vault, clearing a height of 4.15 meters. Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva won the event and set a women's outdoor world record with her vault of 4.82 meters. Russians Svetlana Feofanova and Yelena Belyakova took second and third places, respectively, both jumping 4.54 meters.

Swimming

Ukraine finished ninth in the overall medal total at the 10th Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. The championships, held on July 12-27, included competition in five sports - swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming and open water swimming. Ukraine won seven medals - two gold, three silver and two bronze - in the swimming and diving competitions. The United States finished first in the overall medal count with 31 medals, while Australia took second place, with 26 medals, and Russia took third place with 21.

The Ukrainian team of Volodymyr Nikolaychuk, Oleh Lysohor, Andrii Serdinov and Viacheslav Shyrsov took sixth place in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay, finishing the race in 3 minutes and 37.28 seconds. The United States took first place in the event with a world record time of 3:31.54. Russia took second place with a time of 3:34.72, and Japan took third place, finishing in 3:36.12.

Lysohor took second place in the men's 50-meter breaststroke, finishing the race in 27.74 seconds. Great Britain's James Gibson took first place with a time of 27.56, and Hungary's Mihaly Flaskay took third place, finishing in 27.29.

Ukraine's Yana Klochkova took first place in the women's 400-meter individual medley, finishing the race in 4 minutes and 36.74 seconds. Hungary's Eva Risztov took second place with a time of 4:37.39, and Romania's Beatrice Nicoleta Caslaru took third place with a time of 4:41.86.

Klochkova set a competition record and took first place in the women's 200-meter individual medley, finishing the race in 2:10.75 seconds. Australia's Alice Mills took second place with a time of 2:12.75, and China's Yafei Zhou took third place, finishing the race in 2:12.92.

Ihor Chervynskyi of Ukraine took second place in the men's 1,500-meter freestyle, finishing the race in 15:1.04 seconds. Australia's Grant Hackett took first place with a time of 14:43.14, and Erik Vendt of the United States took third place with a time of 15:01.28.

Chervynskyi took third place in the men's 800-meter freestyle, finishing the race in 7:53.15 seconds. Australia's Grant Hackett took first place with a time of 7:43.82, and Larsen Jensen of the United States took second place with a time of 7:48.09.

Ukraine's Serdinov took third place in the men's 100-meter butterfly, finishing the race in 51.59 seconds. America's Ian Crocker took first place and set a world record by finishing the race in 50.98, while fellow American Michael Phelps took second place with a time of 51.10.

Oleksander Volynets of Ukraine took sixth place in the men's 50-meter freestyle, finishing the race in 22.40 seconds. Russian Alexander Popov set a competition record and took first place with a time of 21.92, while Pieter Van Den Hoogenband of the Netherlands took third place with a time of 22.29.

Ukraine's Iryna Amshennikova missed the medal podium in the women's 200-meter backstroke, finishing the race in fourth place with a time of two minutes and 10.82 seconds. Great Britain's Katy Sexton took first place with a time of 2:08.74, while Margaret Hoelzer of the United States took second place with a time of 2:09.24. Russia's Stanislava Komarova took third place with a time of 2:10.17.

Amshennikova took sixth place in the women's 100-meter backstroke, finishing the race in 1:1.43 seconds. Germany's Antje Buschchulte won the race with a time of 1:00.50, while Denmark's Louise Ornstedt and Great Britain's Katy Sexton tied for second place, finishing in 1:00.86.

Ukraine's Natalia Khudiakova took third place in the women's 50-meter butterfly, finishing the race in 27.10 seconds. Inge De Bruijn set a competition record and took first place with a time of 25.84 seconds. Jenny Thompson of the United States took second place with a time of 26 seconds, while Sweden's Anna-Karin Kammerling took third place, finishing in 26.06.

Denys Sylantiev and Serhii Advena of Ukraine took fifth and sixth places, respectively, in the men's 200-meter butterfly. Michael Phelps of the United States took first place, finishing the race in 1:54.35 seconds, while Japan's Takashi Yamamoto took second place with a time of 1:55.52. Thomas Malchow of the United States took third place, finishing in 1:55.66. Sylantiev finished the race in 1:56.36, while Advena clocked a time of 1:57.21.

Diving

Ukrainians Roman Volodkov and Anton Zakharov took second place in the men's 10-meter synchronized diving competition at the 10th FINA World Championships in Barcelona on July 20. Australia's Robert Newbery and Mathew Helm took first place with 384.60 points, and China's Liang Tian and Jia Hu took third place with 367.14 points. Volodkov and Zakharov finished the competition with 372.60 points.

Zakharov took eighth place in the men's 10-meter platform on July 19. He finished with 614.52 points, while Canada's Alexandre Despatie won the event with 716.91 points. Australia's Mathew Helm took second place with a score of 697.74, and China's Liang Tian took third place, finishing with 696.06 points.

Ukrainians Olha Leonova and Olena Zhupina took seventh place in the women's 10-meter synchronized event on July 13. China's Lishi Lao and Ting Li took first place, finishing with 344.58 points, and Australia's Loudy Tourky and Lynda Dackiw took second place, finishing with 323.34 points. Russia's Evgenya Olshevskaya and Svetlana Timoshinina took third place, finishing with 300.12 points. The Ukrainian pair of Leonova and Zhupina finished with 269.31 points.

Zhupina also earned fourth place in the women's 10-meter platform on July 16, finishing the competition with 526.26 points. Canada's Emilie Heymans took first place with 597.45 points. Lishi Lao and Na Li took second and third places, respectively, finishing with 595.56 and 563.43 points.

Zhupina took ninth place in the women's 3-meter springboard event on July 18, earning 505.26 points, while her teammate, Olena Fedorova, took 11th place and earned 502.74 points. China's Jingjing Guo won the event with a score of 617.94, and Russia's Julia Pakhalina took second place with 611.58 points. China's Minxia Wu took third place, finishing with a score of 589.80.

Kristina Ischenko and Olena Fedorova of Ukraine took seventh place in the women's 3-meter synchronized competition on July 20. The Ukrainian pair finished with a score of 287.04, while China's Wu and Guo took first place with a score of 357.30. Russia's Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina took second place, finishing with 321.24 points, and Mexico's Paola Espinosa and Laura Sanchez took third place with a score of 299.64.

- Compiled by Andrew Nynka

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 10, 2003, No. 32, Vol. LXXI

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