Mental load

Grodno is preparing for the CIS Games in a calm rhythm. The arenas where representative competitions will take place in early August, and these are the Grodno Regional Complex Centre of the Olympic Reserve and the Ice Palace of Sports, were recently personally inspected by the Sport and Tourism Minister of Belarus Sergei Kovalchuk. Brief conclusion? Everything is going according to plan, it is only necessary to correct certain details. Which, no doubt, will be done by August.

It is fashionable to compete in hospitable Grodno

Grodno has the necessary experience in holding major international tournaments. The city, for example, twice hosted the Alexander Kurlovich Memorial Weightlifting Tournament. At the same time, one of them had the status of a qualifying stage for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. So here everything has been tested and brought to a common denominator a long time ago.
As for the home arena of the most titled club in the country, HC Ritm, everything is thought out to the last detail. In addition, in the language of the military, everyone knows his manoeuvre. Of course, some nuances of preparation remain: somewhere we need to make cosmetic repairs, somewhere we need to clarify the details of refereeing the 5x5 hockey format, which is still kind of exotic for us...

The clang of iron

In the Ice Palace of Sports, weightlifters aged 15 to 20 fought against rivals and a naughty barbell at the national championship. Even at the approaches, a characteristic clang of iron was heard. Moreover, inside the arena, the usual routine for weightlifters flowed: in the warm-up rooms, young athletes, making final estimates and stretching exercises, thoroughly prepared for entering the main platform.
On the platform under the encouraging remarks ‘hold, hold!’, ‘well done!’ and others in the same vein were seething with serious passions. About 150 young athletes determined the best in the championship of Belarus. Both boys and girls competed. At the same time, the owners of gold medals will go directly to the 2nd CIS Games, which, let me remind you, will be held in Grodno from August 5th to August 9th.
Taking advantage of a short pause, we talked with the chief secretary of the competition: 
Aleksandr Furs is sure, “The course of the junior championship of Belarus demonstrated that the conditions in the Ice Palace of Sports are excellent, almost ideal. However, we will make them as such — ideal — by the beginning of the CIS Games, do not even doubt it! In particular, we will move the main platform closer to the stands. The cube is also small, on which there is a live video broadcast. Therefore, we decided with the organisers that we would install a 10x10 metres screen measuring. There are no small things here! Now we have held a mini-meeting, during which we checked the combination of colour combinations on a rectangular scoreboard, where the names and results of competing athletes are displayed. In general, there are no global problems. I am sure that Grodno will hold the tournament at the highest level in August.”
We also talked to Olga Velimovich, a 17-year-old master of sports from Mozyr. The girl, far from superstitions, confidently answered ‘yes!’ To the ‘did you come to Grodno for gold’ question of a journalist before the start of the competition. In addition, the words did not match the deeds. In the weight category up to 55 kilogrammes, she took 80 kilogrammes in the snatch, 98 kilogrammes in the clean and jerk, and confidently climbed the top step of the podium with a combined total of 178 kilogrammes. Therefore, we are waiting for the young champion in Grodno on August 5th!

By Vladimir Kozyrev