31.10.-2.11. Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
First round of the Russian Championships
by Anton Batugin
First round of the XII Russian Curling Championship for the High League was
held in Saint-Petersburg between October, 31 and November, 2.Eight men's team
and eight women's played a round robin.
The men's tournament was very unpredictable: all games were very close, it was
impossible to tell who was going to win before the games. The most balanced
play was shown by team of Igor Minin, the first skip of Russian national team
- they won six games out of 7. Aleksei Tselousov, present skip of Russian team
lost his first 2 games, but then recouperated and won all the remaining games.
Team Union (skip- Aleksei Kulchak), which plays their first year in the High
League looked very good too, and their 4th place could change to a better oneafter
the second round.
Olga Jarkova's "Moskvitch-1" team won all 7 games without any problems.
There're no threatening opponents for them in Russia currently. Renewed Tatyana
Smirnova's "Union" team is second, having 5 wins. Yana Nekrasova "SKA-1"
finished first round as third with 4 points.
Russian Championship in High League is spending in 2 rounds. The second round
is planning to the January, 2004 in Moscow.
Final standing after 1st round:
Men's tournament:
1. Rosin-GAFK Saint-Petersburg (Minin) - 6 points; 2. SKA-1 Saint-Petersburg
(Tselousov) - 5 pts; 3. Moskvitch-1 Moscow (Kirikov) - 4 pts; 4. Union Moscow
(Kulchak) - 4 pts; 5. Moskvitch-2 Moscow (Stebakov) - 3 pts; 6. Lesgaftovets
Saint-Petersburg (Bobrov) - 2 pts; 7. Curling club Saint-Petersburg (Izotov)
- 2 pts; 8. SKA-2 Saint-Petersburg (Pecherskiy) - 2 pts.
Women's tournament:
1. Moskvitch-1 Moscow (Jarkova) - 7 points; 2. Union Moscow (Smirnova) - 5 pts;
3. SKA-1 Saint-Petersburg (Nekrasova) - 4 pts; 4. SKA-2 Saint-Petersburg (Lisitskaya)
- 3 pts; 5. School of Winter Sports Spb (Raskhoroshina) - 3 pts; 6. Moscow team
(Skryabina) - 3 pts; 7. Moskvitch-2 Moscow (Galkina) - 2 pts; 8. Lesgaftovets
Saint-Petersburg (Bairova) - 1 pt.
2003-10-27
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