MINSK, 13 March (BelTA) - Honored Master of Sports Siarhei Rutenka has been elected as new Chairman of the Belarusian Basketball Federation. He succeeds Maxim Ryzhenkov, who had headed the federation since 2014, BelTA has learned.
At the extraordinary reporting and election conference on 13 March, Maxim Ryzhenkov noted that fulfilling a range of state tasks as Minister of Foreign Affairs prevents him from focusing seriously on the affairs of the basketball federation. Nevertheless, Maxim Ryzhenkov will continue to support basketball and all of Belarusian sports, as athletes are true diplomats who glorify the country on the international stage with their achievements.
Belarusian Sports Minister Sergei Kovalchuk presented Maxim Ryzhenkov with a certificate of honor from the Sports Ministry. The sports minister emphasized that Maxim Ryzhenkov worked very actively at the Belarusian Basketball Federation and built an excellent team that will continue to develop basketball.
Maxim Ryzhenkov thanked his colleagues for their work and said that the new head of the federation will be able to work successfully in his new position. “It is very important that Siarhei Rutenka is a team player who knows sports from the inside. As a handball player, he achieved a great deal - he repeatedly won the most prestigious continental tournaments and played for the Belarusian national team at World and European Championships. After finishing his active career, he worked in the Belarusian Handball Federation, and from November 2021 to March 2026, he headed the Belarusian Tennis Federation,” Maxim Ryzhenkov said.
Siarhei Rutenka thanked everyone for their trust and said he would strive to maintain standards at an appropriate level: “Together with the federation’s cohesive team, I hope to help basketball, drawing on previous rich experience.”
The participants of the conference elected the deputy chairmen of the Belarusian Basketball Federation, who became Chairman of the Supervisory Board Oleg Zhidkov, as well as Anatoly Yakubenko and Evgeny Zhigimont. The first meeting of the renewed composition of the basketball federation’s executive committee took place on the same day.
Photos by Sergei Sheleg, Denis Kostyuchenko NOC-BelTA
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