Since its appearance in Belarus, volleyball has won people's love. We are not talking about professional sports, but about the widespread passion for this game. In 1935, there were about a thousand volleyball courts in Belarus - almost half of all sports facilities in the country. By the beginning of 1941, there were 15 times more of them - about 15 thousand! Everyone played volleyball: officially in the early 40s, about 50 thousand people played volleyball in the country.
People first learned about volleyball in Belarus in the mid-20s of the last century. Very soon, volleyball sections were formed in Minsk and major cities of the country. The artists of the Kupala Theater were great fans and promoters of this game: among the official documents for 1928, there was an order from the theater management, which noted that during tours the artists got carried away with the game and were late for rehearsals.
After World War II, the passion for volleyball continued. In Minsk there were 3 places where every amateur could play: the park of culture and recreation named after. Gorky, as well as the areas at the entrance to the Dynamo stadium and the Spartak hand games stadium.
Belarusian teams took part in USSR championships and cups, although without much success. Only in the second half of the 1970s did the first serious victories come: in 1977, the Gomel “Promstroy” became the winner of the USSR Cup, a year later the same trophy was won by the Minsk “Motor”.
After another 10 years, the women's team took off. Girls from Minsk Kommunalnik in 1986 and 1988 became bronze medalists of the USSR Championship, and in 1987 - winners of the European Volleyball Confederation Cup Winners' Cup.
Sovereign steps into the elite
After Belarus gained independence, national volleyball teams were formed, and a national championship was organized. In the ranking of popularity among team sports, volleyball is not at the forefront, behind football, hockey, handball and basketball. However, each team has its fans. They actively play volleyball at the amateur level. Unofficial tournaments are held among business companies.
National championships (among men and women) are played in Belarus. The leader of the national championship is Minsk Stroitel, which has won 4 championship titles in a row. There is also a representative of Belarus in the Russian championship - Shakhtar Soligorsk.
The most titled volleyball club in Belarus (among men) is Grodno “Kommunalshchik” - 5 victories in the national championship.
The greatest successes in women's volleyball were achieved by the Minsk Kommunalnik, later renamed Amkodor. It won 8 league titles, but was disbanded in 1999 due to financial reasons. Today, the best team in the country is Atlant Baranavichy, which has won the national championship 5 times over the past 8 years.
At the national team level, Belarusian squads are not yet among the elite of European volleyball, but are on the way to it. The highest achievement of the Belarusian women's team was 8th place at the European Championships in 1993 and 1995. Belarusians did not compete at the Olympics or in the final tournaments of the World Championships. The Belarusian men's team won a ticket to the 2013 European Championship, which will be held in Denmark and Poland.
Belarusian coach for Russia
One of the most famous Belarusians in volleyball is Vladimir Alekno, a native of Polotsk. Having started playing volleyball at the age of 10, at the age of 14 he entered the Minsk sports boarding school. His playing career began in the capital of Belarus - his first club was SKA Minsk. Then, in 1988, he moved to the strongest club in Russia - CSKA, with which he twice became the champion of the USSR, won the Union Cup and the European Champions Cup. Then V. Alekno moved to the Bulgarian Levski - and became the champion of Bulgaria. Vladimir played in Italy and France, and as part of the French “Cannes” he became the champion and winner of the French Cup.
As a coach, he led the French “Thor”, the Russian “Dynamo” and “Zenith”. He was appointed head coach of the Russian national team twice - in 2007 and 2010. At the London Olympics, the Russian team under his leadership won gold medals for the first time since 1980.
January 3, Minsk / Corr. BELTA/. The coaching staff of the Belarusian men's volleyball team announced the list of players for the final qualifying matches for the 2019 European Championship, BelTA learned from the BVF press service.
Head coach Viktor Beksha and his assistant Dmitry Likhorad took the away matches 14 players. These are the passers - Alexey Kurash, Dmitry Vash; blockers - Sergey Busel, Vyacheslav Shmat, Maxim Morozov, Ilya Burov; diagonal - Arthur Udris, Rodion Miskevich; finishers - Andrey Radyuk, Vladislav Davyskiba, Sergey Antonovich, Pavel Avdochenko; libero - Maxim Budyukhin, Stanislav Zaborovsky.
The mentor noted that he would like to have more time to prepare, but due to the busy schedule of club teams, he only has to train for a few days. “The composition of the national team has changed a little compared to the summer. Artem Goremykin, who misses due to health reasons, and Vadim Pronko will not be there. Instead, we called up Dmitry Vash from Energia Gomel and Maxim Morozov, who is having an excellent season in Poland and has good statistics on the block and is one of the team leaders,” said Victor Beksha.
Before flying to Spain (January 4), where the first away match of the Belarusians will take place, the training session at the Raubichi sports complex was visited by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Belarusian Volleyball Federation, Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Vashchenko. He emphasized that the development of Belarusian volleyball and interest in it depend, among other things, on the results demonstrated by the teams. Vladimir Vashchenko thanked the players who, despite the busy schedule during the season, came during the holidays and prepared with the national team for important games.
The Belarusian men's team will play the final qualifying matches away from home against Spain (January 6) and Norway (January 9).
Before the final two rounds of the qualifying round, the Belarusian team in group E takes first place: Belarus - 11 points (4 matches), Spain - 8 (4), Norway - 5 (4), Georgia - 0 (4).
The winner of the group will receive the right to play in the final stage of the European Championship, which will be held from September 12 to 29, 2019. Previously, the Belarusian men's team took part in the decisive stage of the continental forum twice (in 2013 and 2015), but failed to overcome the preliminary stage of the tournament. -0-
Photo of the Belarusian Volleyball Federation
After returning from Ankara at the capital's Minsk-2 airport, the players of the national volleyball team were keenly interested in where the final part of the 2013 European Championship would be held. It cannot be said that previously they were not interested in the location of the continental forum, but after numerous attempts to overcome the qualifying barrier, this issue was irrelevant for the team for many years.
Until September 2012, men could not overcome the qualification sieve for almost 20 years. The squads (each of which was called promising and capable of big victories) and coaches changed, but they could not rise above third or fourth place in their qualifying group. In the national history of team sports among men's teams, Viktor Sidelnikov's wards became the second after handball players who managed to make it to the continental forum.
Success Factors
In volleyball, unlike football, hockey, and handball, no significant financial resources were invested. And there are no stars of European proportions in domestic volleyball. With the exception of Oleg Akhrem from the Polish Resovia, who has nothing to do with the team’s current victory.
The period of formation was not easy. The sports leaders on the team doubted it, but the guys proved the opposite with their results. The starting point can be considered 2008, when the Belarusian national team took fifth place at the European Youth Championship and received the right to play at the 2009 World Cup in India. The Belarusians arrived from the world forum not so inspired - 15th place. As often happens at tournaments of this magnitude, everything depended on a single match. An unfortunate defeat from the Americans (1:3) deprived the Belarusians of hope for the top eight.
Promising youth players Pavel Avdochenko, Sergey Busel, Artur Udris, Andrey Radyuk were supported at home, continuing to play in the capital's Stroitel. The Minsk club has dominated the domestic scene for the past three years, and in the 2011/2012 season it debuted in one of the strongest leagues in the world - the Russian Super League. In fact, a timely decision, when Stroitel had already outgrown the level of the Belarusian championship, allowed the players to progress. The matches with Iskra, Dynamo Moscow and Krasnodar gave much more than the previous few years.
In addition, the country's men's team, starting in 2008, received permanent playing experience in the Euroleague. Gone are the short training camps once every two years before the next qualifying tournament. How it would end for the Belarusian national team, many knew even before the start of the matches.
Advantage over rivals
The game of the current Belarusian volleyball team is not without serious miscalculations and mistakes. The team tries to compensate them with its trump cards. The main ones are the physical characteristics of the players and a clearly structured tactical pattern.
The national team's middle blockers Sergei Busel and Artur Udris are among the best at their positions in Europe. Both, playing last season, were among the best blockers in the Russian championship.
Diagonal forward Pavel Avdochenko is one of those unique players who can throw the ball over the opponents' block in an attack, possessing an incredible jump.
If you add to this “cocktail” the experience of Dmitry Likhorad, one of the best liberos, you will get a rather serious “explosive mixture”, which turned the heads of the Turks, Portuguese and British in the qualifying round.
Coach's ambitions
The role of Viktor Sidelnikov in the Belarusian national team is difficult to overestimate. His authority as a player of the USSR and Russian national teams, coach of the Kazan Dynamo-TTG (now Zenit - won the Champions League in 2008 under the leadership of Viktor Vladimirovich) served its role. Sidelnikov, who ended his playing career in 2001 and headed the Kazan club, proved by his own example how you can reach the top from the very bottom. He brought this idea to the Belarusian national team, which, after 20 years of unsuccessful attempts, seemed to have lost faith in ever playing in the final stage of the European Championship. The team played its first official match under the leadership of Sidelnikov in 2009, unexpectedly losing to Austria in the 1st round of the Euroleague - 1:3. However, then the team, albeit not without difficulties, moved upward. In 2011, in the next Euroleague, the team failed to qualify from the group, which was the reason for resignation. They didn’t seem to want to break off relations with Sidelnikov, but it was decided to entrust the work in Stroitel, who was about to make his debut in the Russian Championship, to Milan Zharkovich. The Serbian specialist failed to gain a foothold either in the club or in the national team. In the summer, when it was clear that Shakhtar Soligorsk, under the leadership of Sidelnikov, would replace Stroitel in the Russian Championship, the Russian specialist was again offered to work with the national team, which was preparing for the qualifying matches of the European Championship. He believed in the guys and knew their potential, and returned to the national team. As a result, already in the first round in Portugal, when the Belarusians won all three matches, it became obvious: the team was ready to overcome the qualification barrier.
Strengthening methods
The final part of the European Championship will take place from September 20 to 29, 2013. Viktor Sidelnikov has a year ahead to correct the shortcomings in the team’s performance. Of course, the mentor will rely on proven fighters. However, there are still reserves. First of all, the striker of the Polish “Resovia” and the former leader of the national team from Grodno Oleg Akhrem, who changed his citizenship, but has not yet played in the national team of our western neighbors. In 2009, Ahrem, at that time a Champions League finalist as part of the Greek Iraklis, had a conflict with Viktor Sidelnikov at one of the training sessions in Slovakia. Oleg left the training. In this situation, there is no need to talk about warm feelings for Sidelnikov from the Resovia captain, but the following year Ahrem still took part in the qualifying matches for the 2011 European Championship. But this was Ahrem's last appearance in the national team uniform. Next year, for the national team in Denmark or Poland, the help of one of the leaders in receiving the ball in attacks from the fourth zone would not be superfluous. However, will one of the leading strikers in Europe come to Minsk? The question remains open.
The volleyball players of our men's team beat the Hungarian team with a score of 3:0 in the final match of the group stage of the silver Euroleague and, taking first place in their group, reached the Final Four. They will have to fight for victory in the tournament with teams from Macedonia, Croatia and Latvia. Former head coach of the national team and helmsman of the Minsk “Stroitel” Alexander Singaevsky is sure: in this company we are the favorites:
Our team improves as the tournament progresses, plays well and now looks much better than at the beginning of the tournament. We have assembled a roster that should fight for entry into the golden Euroleague. In addition, all rivals are passable.
PHOTO CEV.LU
Our volleyball players have met and defeated the Latvian team more than once, so they know the enemy well. In addition, Latvian setter Denis Petrov, whom Alexander Singaevsky calls the soul and engine of the team, played as part of “Builder”:
According to our height, we are taller than Latvians, but we have a lot of experience and skill. The Croatian team is also a known opponent to us. Only in the current Euroleague they played with her twice. We lost at home, and it seems to me that this failure only spurred the players on: they analyzed the game and did their job in the next matches. At one time we also played with the Macedonians - there are no stars in this team. I repeat: I consider us favorites in the Final Four. Everything is on our side: the composition, experience, and skill.
The Euroleague Silver Final Four will be held on June 15-16 in Skopje, and its winner will replace the outsider team in the Gold League next season. After this tournament in August, our team will play in the qualifications for the European Championship, where it will meet with the Spaniards, Norwegians and Georgians. Singaevsky talks about the chances of the Belarusians at the preliminary stage as follows:
- The Euroleague Final Four will be a good experience before the qualifying tournament of the European Championship, and it will also provide an opportunity to determine and cement the composition of our team for the upcoming matches. Now the team contains masters of their craft with a good playing history, plus we have a reserve - Artem Goremykin and Pavel Kuklinsky, who are healing from injuries. In qualifying, our main opponents will be the Spaniards - a very technical, short team, similar to a Latin American team. Last year we met with Spain in the World Cup qualifiers and lost 2:3. But then we didn’t have the most competitive squad - Udris and a number of other players were absent, so I think this team is within our strength. We also played with the Norwegians. They, like the Georgians, are inferior in level to us and the Spaniards. I believe that we have good chances here too.
Our women's team, unfortunately, failed to make it to the Final Four of the golden Euroleague: the girls lost their chances of reaching the decisive round in the fifth round match, where they lost away to the Czech national team with a score of 0:3. In the final match of the tournament, our girls were unable to take revenge on their rivals: with the stands at the Chizhovka Arena full, they lost in a bitter fight with a score of 2:3 and took second place in Group C.
SCOREBOARD
PHOTO BY YURI MOZOLEVSKY
Group "C". Belarus - Czech Republic - 2:3(21:25, 25:18, 25:19, 20:25, 12:15), Slovakia - Spain - 3:2 (25:17, 22:25, 23:25, 25:16, 15:6) . Final position: 1. Czech Republic - 15 points, 2. Belarus - 8, 3. Slovakia - 6, 4. Spain - 5.
Silver Euroleague, men. 6th round
Group "B". Hungary - Belarus - 0:3(16:25, 12:25, 17:25), Albania - Croatia - 2:3 (11:25, 18:25, 29:27, 25:21, 11:15). Final position: 1. Belarus - 15, 2. Croatia - 14, 3. Albania - 5, 4. Hungary - 2.
