Children of Asia Games Day 2: Four medals and first gold for Team Belarus
MINSK, 27 June (BelTA) — The second day of the 8th Children of Asia International Games has ended in Yakutsk, BelTA has learned.
On 27 June, Belarusian young athletes competed in taekwondo, table tennis, 3×3 basketball and rhythmic gymnastics. Five Belarusian athletes competed in the taekwondo tournament and four medaled : Polina Mikhalchuk became the champion (+63kg) of the Children of Asia Games, Stepan Goyd (-55kg) and Anastasia Smirnova (-63kg) won silver, Vladimir Moroz earned bronze (-48kg).
«I confidently won the first round of the final match. In the second my opponent imposed her game. She is lighter and faster than me and I got tired. But in the third round, I pulled myself together. I had to take the gold medal. I went towards this for a long time and trained very hard. I am thankful to my parents and coach Sergey Dikanev, who has been working with me since childhood,” Polina Mikhalchuk noted. “I thought that other guys would also win golds but things turned out as they did. They did great. i am proud of them.»
At the group stage of the 3×3 basketball tournament, Belarus beat Kyrgyzstan (19:10) and Uzbekistan (14:8). Tomorrow Belarus will take on the team of Russia’s Ural Federal District for the top place in the group. In the girls’ circuit the Belarusian team prevailed over their peers from the Ural Federal District (13:10) and the Siberian Federal District (9:8). On 28 June, the girls will play with the national teams of Uzbekistan and the Far Eastern Federal District.
Belarusian Nazar Matsko reached Round of 16 in the table tennis tournament by winning three matches in his group, Varvara Zaitseva also advanced to the first round of the playoffs among the girls. The Belarusians will play their next head-to-head matches on 29 June. Their teammates Aleksandr Petrashevsky and Maria Selivonets bowed out of the qualifying round.
The rhythmic gymnastics program started on 27 June. In the group exercises, the Belarusian team consisting of Yesenia Paretskaya, Kamilla Baranova, Yulia Druzhinina, Alexandra Kurak, Arianna Parkhacheva and Anastasia Zhukovets is in the lead after the first routine (five hoops). On Friday, the Belarusian team will perform their 5 pairs of Clubs routine. In the individual program Margarita Zhurovich advanced to the ball final. The all-around tournament will wrap up tomorrow.
