The 25th World Winter Universiade, held in Turkey, has come to an end. The Ukrainian team’s performance was great. Our team placed third in the general classification, having won 15 awards: six gold, five silver and four bronze medals. The Russian team finished in first place, having won 14 gold, the same number of silver, and 11 bronze medals. The second place went to athletes from South Korea, who won seven gold, three silver and five bronze medals. Let’s recall that at the second-to-last Universiade, which was held in 2009 in Harbin (China), Ukraine ranked only 13th, having won seven medals. The greatest number of Ukrainian medals came from the biathlon event (six gold and two bronze ones), thus allowing Ukraine to win the entire biathlon competition. Our team won also two silver and three bronze medals in ski racing, a silver one in snowboarding, and a bronze in figure skating.
The greatest heroes were Vita Semerenko, who won three gold awards, and Artem Pryma, who added a silver medal to his three gold ones. By the way, Valia Semerenko didn’t lag behind her sister, and performed very well in the World Biathlon Cup, too. One of the best Ukrainian biathletes, she currently ranks seventh on the basis of performance in the seven stages of the World Cup. The Ukrainian team’s “treasury” received contributions from Serhii Semenov, who won such “assets” as one silver and two gold medals. But the largest number of medals was won by skier Kateryna Hryhorchuk. Her catch includes three bronze and two silver medals. Now, the athletes are back in Ukraine, and experts as well as fans have already called their Universiade performance impressive and triumphant. Now their sights are turned toward the 26th Universiade. It will be hosted by the Slovenian city of Maribor in 2013.
