Usevalad Sarakavik. Photo courtesy of the Sports and Tourism Ministry
MINSK, 28 September (BelTA) – Belarusian athletes won eight awards on the first day of the swimming competitions during the 3rd CIS Games in Azerbaijan, BelTA has learned.
On the opening day the swimming pool in Ganja hosted final competitions in nine events. The Belarusian team snatched one gold, four silver, and three bronze medals. Usevalad Sarakavik won the men’s 100m breaststroke while Maksim Malyshka, a recent European Youth Olympic Festival champion, came second in the 200m medley. Mikita Apanasik took silver in the 50m backstroke, losing to Russia’s Dmitry Kravtsov by just one hundredth of a second. Another Belarusian, Kiryl Bantsevich, rounded out the top three.
Ksenia Mastovich won bronze in the women’s 800m freestyle while Valeria Shilko and Bazhena Pivash took second and third place in the 200m breaststroke. In the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay our team of Aliaksei Tarasenka, Mikita Liakh, Anastasia Vasilenka, and Valeria Shilko finished second behind the Russian team.
The opening ceremony of the 3rd CIS Games will take place in the city of Ganja on Sunday evening. The multisport forum will last until 8 October. In total, the competition has brought together more than 1,500 athletes under the age of 23 from 13 countries: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Cuba, Kuwait, Pakistan, and Oman. The Belarusian delegation included 241 young athletes in 21 disciplines.
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