Everybody’s game: from schoolchildren to journalists
24th of February was a big day for handball community in many regions of Russia. In Men’s and Women’s Championships of Russia 8 games were played, they will be followed by a pause in the games schedule due to the national teams’ training camps. The key event took place in Zvenigorod (Moscow region). It combined the match between “Zvezda” and “Astrakhanochka” teams and the friendly game between the national teams of journalists from Russia and Belarus. Russian team was headed by 14-times state’s champion Valisy Filippov. Russians looked forward to the return game after the loss in the first game that was played in Brest where the Belarus team won 12:11.
The game between “Zvezda” and “Astrakhanochka” was the real gem of the Championship: in a fierce fight 10 seconds before the end “Astrakhanochka”, led by the head coach Evgeny Trefilov, grinded out a tie – 25:25. Russian journalist were not as successful in their game. The honorary guest of the match – Deputy Prime-Minister of the Government of Russia Dmitry Rogozin, the distinguished businessman and a fan of the handball – Ivan Savvidi, government authorities of Zvenigorod and Astakhan region and the several hundreds of sports fans were cheering for our team. In spite of three months of intensive training Russian team managed to score 11 goals but missed 16.
Sergey Shishkarev, the President of the Handball Federations of Russia, opened the evening with a press-conference. It has been two months after the last game with the journalists and questions to the Presidents started to pile up.
One of the subjects discussed was the performance of the Russian national team at the European Men’s Championship in January, where our team ranked the 9th in the final table: they talked about the bad luck during the final minute of the game with Sweden, told about the support to the coach of the team Dmitry Torgovanov and about the recommendation of the Ministry of Sport to prolong the contracts with coaches.
A particular interest of the journalist was attracted by the words of Shishkarev about the necessity of creation of the Moscow men’s handball club. “There are three options for creations of the men’s handball club in Moscow. We are working with the Ministry of Defense to restore the men’s CSKA team. The Head of the HFR Board of trustees Dmitry Rogozin also offered to create a club with support of Sukhoi Aviation Holding Company, United Aircraft Corporation and United Engine Corporation at the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI). The third option is creation of a club on the basis or Roskosmos. I think at least one club with a good base and school will emerge this year. But it is important not to lose already existing clubs, given the complicated economic environment, – said Mr. Shishkarev.
He also told about the decision to hold the qualification tournament to the Men’s World Championship-2017 in Moscow: between June 10th and 12th at the palace of sports “Dinamo” in Krylatskoe Russian national team will play with the team of Montenegro. “Despite of the result of the previous game in continental championship where Russians won Montenegrins 28:21, we should not relax, one of their leading players Vuko Borozan did not participate in that game. In the next season he will already play for “Vardar” instead of our Sergey Gorbok – this already tells us something about the level of the pivot player”, said the President of the HFR.
Sergey Shishkarev specifically noted two projects connected to the children’s handball. The first one is launch of the All-Russian Children’s Handball League with support of the charity foundation “SAFMAR”; sports schools and general schools of 30 regions of Russia will participate in it. By the next year the number of participants of this tournament will increase: the mutual project of the Olympic Committee of Russia and the HFR “Creation of the broad network of school sport clubs that cultivate handball in Russia” in the framework of the program “Olympic state”.
Just two hours before the press-conference in two cities of the Republic of Bashkortostan – Sterlitamak and Salavat – a festive ceremony of presenting uniform and equipment took place, with participation of authorities of both cities, representatives of OCR and the 3-times Olympic Champion, Vice-President of the HFR Andrey Lavrov. We can be sure that four schools will benefit from the new equipment and in the couple of years will add to the local men’s and women’s teams, playing in Super League, and the Handball Federation of Russia will do its best to ensure that these programs will work in all regions of Russia.
Source: Sport-express.ru