Russia’s Olympic Success Continues

Russia’s Olympic Success Continues

We are now almost two weeks into the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and a lot has happened. Russia has continued to claim victory after victory despite the fact that competition this year seems to be tougher than ever. On our previous count, Russia had managed to win three gold, eight silver and seven bronze medals. That count has now increased to ten gold, fourteen silver and eighteen bronze medals.

The Russian Olympic team has been very busy doing their utmost to outperform the best of the best from around the world and to bring their country glory and honor. In Russia.com’s last review we kicked off with the recent success of the men’s wrestling team. Their success has continued since then, with Mavlet Batirov obtaining another gold in the men’s freestyle 60kg division. Fellow Russian wrestler Besik Kudukhov won the bronze in the men’s freestyle 55 kg while Alena Kartashova won the silver in the women’s freestyle 63 kg.

Three further gold medals have been obtained in various athletic disciplines. Andrey Silnov took the gold medal for the men’s high jump, in which he was closely followed by fellow athlete Yaroslav Rybakov who took the bronze medal in the same event. Another gold was won by Valeriy Borchin in the men’s 20km walk, while yet another gold was won by Elena Isinbaeva who won the women’s pole vault. Fellow competitor Svetlana Feofanova shared the podium when she took the bronze in the same category. Gulnara Galkina-Samitova also took the gold for the women’s 3000m steeplechase. She was joined on the winners’ podium by team mate Ekaterina Volkova who took home the bronze. Tatyana Lebedeva also enjoyed success when she managed to claim the silver medal for the women’s triple jump.

The remaining gold medals were won by teammates Evgenia Lamonova, Victoria Nikichina, Aida Shanaeva and Boyko Svetlana for the women’s team foil fencing, and Elena Dementieva who took the gold medal for the tennis women’s singles. Dementieva shared the winners’ podium with teammates Dinara Safina, who took the silver, and Vera Zvonareva, who took the bronze in the same division.

Russia’s Olympic success has continued with Julia Pakhalina taking the silver for the women’s 3m springboard in diving, while Evgeny Chigishev won the silver men’s +105kg weightlifting. He was kept company by Dmitriy Klokov, who took the silver in the men’s 105kg, Dmitry Lapikov, who took the bronze in the men’s 105 kg weightlifting and Khadzhimurat Akkaev, who took bronze for his efforts in the men’s 94 kg weightlifting. Other bronze medal winners include: Vladimir Isakov (shootng - men’s 50m pistol), Anton Golotsutskov (gymnastics artistic – men’s vault; men’s floor exercise), Bair Badenov (archery – men’s individual) and Alexi Markov and Mikhail Ignatyev (track cycling – men’s Madison). The national team is still going strong at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and will likely see many more victories before the games are over.