MINSK, 2 March (BelTA) – Belarusian speed skater Polina Sivets has bagged the first gold medal for Belarus at the 2nd Winter Children of Asia International Games, BelTA has learned.
Kuzbass Ice Arena in Russia’s Kemerovo hosted the 3,000m speed skating event on Thursday. Captain of the Belarusian team at the Games Polina Sivets clocked 4:30.72 to claim gold. Earlier, Polina Sivets won silver in the 1,500m.
Competing in the 3,000m event were three more Belarusians: Evelina Konoplyanik finished 6th, Dominika Kukharchik – 13th, Rina Voitenkova - 25th out of more than 30 participants.
Dominika Kukharchik finished one step from the podium in the 1,000m. Polina Sivets was 14th, Evelina Konoplyanik 15th, and Kira Goncharik 23rd. In the men’s 1,000m Roman Chernyavsky and Fyodor Danilov rounded up the top twenty coming in 19th and 20th, Egor Ganchenko finished 23rd.
The speed skating program will include team sprints and mass starts on 3 March. Belarus has so far won seven (one gold, three silver and three bronze) medals at the 2nd edition of the Children of Asia Games.