Not One Day Without Medals, Now Silver

On September 21, the Ukrainian women archers won silver medals at the Sydney Olympics. Olena Sadovnycha, Kateryna Serdiuk, and Natalia Burdeina went successfully through the qualifications and beat the Turks in the semifinals. In the finals, the damsels of South Korean girls, leaders for many years, proved stronger and grabbed the gold with a score 251 to 239.

Coming back to gymnastics individual events, let me draw your attention to the Sydney television coverage by Moscow’s respected NTV. After telling in detail about the 2000 Olympic champion Aleksei Nemov, the Russian journalist complained that Belarusian gymnast Ivan Ivankov, who came off fourth, was completely unlucky because of injuries (is there anybody who has never had them) and that our compatriot Oleksandr Beresh took third place only because he is younger than Ivankov (!) and had no injuries! So should Beresh give back his medal?

Another piece of news, bitter indeed, came from Sydney: Ukrainian shot-putter Oleksandr Bahach will not be performing at the Olympics. The International Light Athletics Federation Board resolved to uphold the doping commission’s recommendation to refer “the Bahach case” to an arbitration jury. The jury will not announce its ruling very soon. Oleksandr did not come out on the field on September 22. A pity indeed.