Tiraspol, April 2. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. In Tiraspol, the ten best athletes of the city and their coaches were awarded according to the results of the year. The top includes five boxers: Daria Kozorez, Vladislav Gudz, Daniil Slepoy, Kristina Kiper, Irina Chubova. Athlete Nikolay Orlov, chess player Anna Varyokha, rower Ivan Korshunov, taekwondo player Dmitry Shulyak and para-athlete Dmitry Lavrov are also among the best.
The honoring of the athletes was held in a quarantine format: each athlete and coach was awarded separately at an allotted time. The diplomas and cash prizes were presented by the Head of the Moscow Department of Physical Culture and Sports Andrey Badanov. He noted that the sports year 2020 took place no matter what.
“Every year, the top ten athletes are unique in terms of both the level of competition and achievements. The pandemic, of course, has taken its toll, but our guys still managed to go to the contests and take part in world competitions,” Andrey Badanov emphasized.
Tennis player Dmitry Lavrov came to the awards ceremony immediately after training. He says that the training process in high-performance sports is above all. Although, the para-athlete admitted that it is more difficult to work on your sports shape without competition.
“It was a tough year, with practically no competitions. But before the introduction of quarantine at the beginning of the year, I managed to go to international competitions. It's nice to receive the award, it's nice that the athletes are not forgotten, I hope for further cooperation with the city sports department and our club,” Dmitry Lavrov said.
Athlete from Tiraspol is among the candidates for the Paralympic quota. Although, he does not yet know how exactly his Olympic fate will be decided. The para-tennis-player describes two scenarios. This is the choice of the Paralympic Committee in conjunction with the International Table Tennis Federation or the championship title at the final qualifying tournament in Slovenia. Now Dmitry Lavrov is preparing for the Russian Table Tennis Championship among persons with lesions of the musculoskeletal system, which will be held on April 25-30.
Another Tiraspol athlete, Ivan Korshunov, is not receiving his award for the first time and says that it has already become a kind of tradition. Last year, he only managed to get into the U23 European Championship, where he finished fifth. Many competitions were canceled due to quarantine restrictions, and the coronavirus itself also caught the academician. But there was no time to get sick, Ivan Korshunov emphasized, because you need to train.
“We hope this year will be more productive. In a couple of days we will fly to the European Championship. This year we even have a chance to qualify for the Olympics. Now, in the next two months, there will be the most interesting races, because this is a fight for the last Olympic Games quotas,” Ivan Korshunov said.
The handball players of the PSU-Kartina TV club were recognized as the best team according to the results of the year 2020. Team captain Yaroslav Vytsekhovsky said that the pandemic did not affect the team's health, but confused the sports regime, like all other athletes. During the period of strict quarantine restrictions, handball players kept fit at home.
“Even when we were at home, we still performed all the tasks of our coach, since professional sport is impossible without training. Then we returned to the hall, there was an opportunity to play. There were no fans though, which is always difficult. This year we hope that we will also get to the Eurocup, since we missed it last year because of the pandemic,” Yaroslav Vytsekhovsky said.
Regardless of the difficulties that arise due to the coronavirus pandemic, our athletes continue to improve and strive to conquer the highest steps of sports pedestal. The main wish, which all the coaches and their students expressed today, was contained in simple truths: good health and as many competitions as possible.
