Four gold medals in one day!

The first "medal" day of the Winter Universiade 2017 is over. Russian athletes spent it successfully having won 9 medals, including 4 gold medals. Athletes from Krasnoyarsk have not got on the podium yet.

Competitions in Super-G discipline have been held today on the ski slope. In ladies’ tournament, first place was taken by a Russian alpine skier Elena YAKOVISHINA.  She confidently won both attempts. Second and third places were taken by Nea LUUKKO from Finland and Asa ANDO from Japan. Daria OVCHINNIKOVA, an athlete from Krasnoyarsk and a student of the Siberian Federal University (SFU), delivered the 19th result. In men’s tournament, best result within the discipline belongs to Michelangelo TENTORI from Italy.  Russian athletes Evgeniy PYASIK and Simon EFIMOV placed second and third.

The fastest athletes have been determined in 5 km women cross-country skiing. First and second places in the final results protocol were taken by the Russian representatives to the joy of the Russian supporters. Liliya VASILIEVA was 13 seconds ahead of her teammate Anna NECHAEVSKAYA. Bronze medal was awarded to Anna SHEVCHENKO, an athlete from Kazakhstan. Men have also followed suit by adding gold and silver medals to the national team’s collection. First place - Valery GONTAR, second place - Dmitry ROSTOVTSEV, third place - Alexandre POUYE (France), being 21 seconds behind the leader.

First sets of medals have been also contested in freestyle skiing (aerials). Russian athletes (both men and women) have not managed to reach top three winning places despite small number of participants. Two gold medals are going to make their way to China.

It's been a bitter day for snowboarders from Krasnoyarsk. In parallel giant slalom Dmitry TAYMULIN, a student of the Siberian Federal University (SFU), and Vera KOLEGOVA, a student of the Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V.P.Astafiev (KSPU), confidently reached the quarter-finals. However none of them managed to make it to the next stage. Aleksandra KROL from Poland has become the winner, beating Ukrainian athlete Annamari DANCHA in the final. Men’s final turned out to be “Russian” even without participation of the athlete from Krasnoyarsk. As a result, Bogdan BOGDANOV was the strongest based on the number of races. Vladislav SHKURIKHIN placed second.

Qualifying round is underway in hockey. The Russian men’s team won over the Koreans with a score of 14:0. Interestingly enough, the number “0” appeared in two more games’ results today: Canadians defeated the British with a score of 14:0 and Czech players beat the Swedish team with a score of 5:0. The coach of the Czech team was overwhelmed with happiness after the match:

“First of all, I think the game was “excellent”.  We didn’t expect the score would be 5:0. We’d been preparing for this tournament keeping an eye on the competitors. I’m very happy that today’s game has worked out well and I’m even more happy about the fact that we didn’t let in a single goal”.

Curling tournament has started. The Russian women’s team has played two games today. In the first game they won over the British team with a score of 7:3. In the second game they beat the Norwegian team with a score of 9:3. The Russian men’s team played one game but unfortunately the English team took advantage of our guys with a score of 9:5.

Russia is the leader in medal standings. Our athletes have won 4 gold medals today. Second place belongs to China with 2 gold medals, third place goes to Poland (1 gold medal).

11 sets of medals will be contested in Almaty tomorrow.