News & Events in Belarus

MINSK, 2 September (BelTA) - Team Belarus won the group all-round (10 clubs; 3 balls/2 hoops) gold at the 32nd Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships 2013 which were held in Kyiv, Ukraine, BelTA has learnt. The last time Belarus triumphed in this event was 15 years ago, in 1998.

World champions in the group all-round are Belarus’ Alexandra Narkevich, Marina Goncharova, Yana Lukovets, Valeria Pishchelina, Anna Dudenkova and Maria Kotyak. The team are trained by Belarus’ Honored Coach Tatiana Nenasheva.

The Belarusian team did not leave a chance to their opponents. In the 10 clubs rotation Belarus won the highest number of points, 17.783. In the 3 balls/2 hoops routine they were second to none, too, and earned 17.925 points. In the all round event neither of the other teams managed to earn more points than Belarus whose score was 35.708 points. Italy produced a sensation by grabbing silver (34.733). Russia had to settle for bronze with 34.225 points. Russia was represented by Olga Ilyina, Anastasia Bliznyuk, Ksenia Dudkina, Anastasia Maksimova, Anastasia Nazarenko and Yelena Romanchenko.

Earlier in 2013 Belarus won several medals in the FIG World Cups. The squad of Team Belarus remained almost the same in Kyiv, with the only change being the introduction of Yana Lukovets. Leaders of the team Alexandra Narkevich and Marina Goncharova were silver medalists of the 2012 London Olympic Games. The success in Kyiv is the first one in this event since the gold medal won at the 1998 World Championships in Sevilla, Spain. Back then, Belarus squad included Olga Zaitseva, Galina Malashenko, Anna Glazkova, Tatiana Belan, Irina Ilyenkova and Anastasia Zvariko.