Damaratskaya, Golovatsiuk claim victories at Commonwealth Speed Skating Cup

MINSK, 21 February (BelTA) - Belarusian athletes Hanna Damaratskaya and Ignat Golovatsiuk emerged as winners at the international speed skating tournament Commonwealth Cup, BelTA has learned.

On the second day of competition in Moscow, men and women vied for top honors in the 1000m distance. Hanna Damaratskaya secured gold in the women’s event with a time of 1:18.80, finishing 0.17 seconds ahead of Moscow’s Alexandra Sayutina. Another Russian athlete, Irina Kuznetsova, rounded out the top three, while Sofia Taturevich of Belarus placed seventh.

Ignat Golovatsiuk covered the 1,000m distance in 1:09.94, with silver medalist Artyom Snetkov from St. Petersburg finishing more than a second behind the Belarusian. Just one step away from the podium was our Anton Brankovsky, who missed the “bronze” time of Sergey Borodulin from Chelyabinsk Oblast by a mere two-hundredths of a second.

Belarusian Viktor Rudenko took seventh place, followed closely by Andrei Ilyutik, while Artiom Chaban finished 11th and Yauheni Hahiyeu placed 13th among 18 participants. The previous day, Golovatsiuk and Damaratskaya had won silver medals in the 500m event, and Yahor Damaratski claimed victory in the 5,000m distance. The Commonwealth Speed Skating Cup program for 21 February will conclude with mass start races.