Dynamo Champion!?
Sadly, Ukraine's knights of the soccer field will not witness a fierce
struggle for the championship. Donetsk Shakhtar, which changed coaches
at the end of the second round, could not overcome its past failures. It
tied in the final round Kharkiv Metalist at 1:1, costing Shakhtar two critical
points.
In its turn Kyiv Dynamo, veteran of the UEFA 1999 semifinals, defeated
Kirovohrad Zirka 1:0, thanks to a goal by Oleksandr Holovko. And now it
would take the wildest of fantasies to imagine that the team boasting super-forward
Andriy Shevchenko and led by Valery Lobanovsky could lose 10 points in
remaining matches and allow Shakhtar to supplant it in the lead. The main
struggle promises to be for third place between Kryvbas of Kryvy Rih and
Karpaty of Lviv.
Ukrainian Professionals to Play American Amateurs
Today in Kyiv's Sports Palace the finals of Volkov Cup All-Ukrainian Children's
Basketball Tournament will be held. It has been six years in a row that
1988 Seoul Olympic champion Oleksandr Volkov (who has played at his time
for Kyiv Budivelnyk and the NBA's Atlanta Hawks) conducts the tournament,
the main goal of which is to select promising young basketball players.
The tournament is all-Ukrainian and promotes the popularization of basketball
here. The finals are to be held in daytime, and in the evening the national
team of Ukraine and Converse All Stars (students' combined team) will take
the floor.
Kyiv's Hosts ETA Junior Tennis Tourneys
Yesterday saw the start of the Kinetik Cup Junior (up to 16 years) Tennis
Tournament at Kyiv's Dynamo Stadium, involving players from nine countries,
including Yugoslavia, Israel, and Russia.
This competition is in the ETA second category, currently the most prestigious
junior event in the CIS. Needless to say, the contenders are the best in
their age groups in their countries. At a news conference prior to the
competition a number of journalists received presents from the Kvant Co.
in commemoration of their coverage of last year's tournament, among them
the Den's sports editor Petro MARUSENKO.
Last week saw the end of the Antei Cup junior tournament here. Thanks
to its second category status, it attracted the best players from 13 countries.
The winner was Artiun Safian of Yerevan, Armenia, who ranks eighth in
overall ETA standings, defeating in the final 15 year-old Kyivan Taras
Demyanenko, 5:7, 6:3, 6:4. Both finalists will also play in the Kinetik
Cup tournament. Taras Demyanenko is son of the legendary captain of Kyiv
Dynamo, Anatoly Demyanenko.
