The winners and prize-winners of the All-Russian tournament "Heroes of the City" were the men's and women's handball teams of the Volga Region University. The tournament with the participation of 36 teams was held on December 18 and 19 at four venues in Chekhov.
Medals of the tournament were awarded in five categories. The University was represented in the categories of "professional women" and "professional men".
The women's team of the University made a victorious debut in the "Heroes of the City", without losing a single match, either in the group tournament or in the final, against the "Golden Eagle", in which the students, coached by Alfiya Popova, defeated their rivals (22:14).
- The decisive match turned out to be very spectacular, - said the head coach of the men's national team of the University Alexey Popov. - With the removal in our composition, tough, fighting. It was very important for this team to take part in the tournament, as the girls have little game practice the rest of the time.
The spirit with which our students played in Chekhov brought them not only the championship Cup. Elena Fedotova became the top scorer of the tournament.
- We were really looking forward to these competitions, - admitted Elena. - We were preparing for them. We were going to win. And we did it. 1st place - gold! Our guys are also great fellows! In a hard struggle, they took second place. We all did not give up in difficult moments and fought to the end. I myself got injured in the final game. Although I understood that we would win, I was still very worried about our girls.
In the men's tournament, the competition was off the scale. According to the results of the group tournament, four teams scored 4 points each. Additional indicators were used in personal meetings and the hosts, Chekhov's "Pegasus", a team assembled from veteran professionals by Russian national team player Dmitry Santalov remained behind the start of the semifinals. And the University of Sports team defeated KAI-Zilant in the dispute for reaching the final, and lost to Protvino in the decisive match (15:19).
- We fought to the end, but before the final we were left without a main player, - says Alexey Popov. - But Protvino is also a strong team, which is supported by the guys who played for the Chekhov Bears. In general, the impressions from the trip to Chekhov are the most positive. I met there among the organizers many of those with whom I still played (Popov, won the championships of Russia and Italy, was recognized as the top scorer of the Italian league), they admitted that they did not expect such a performance from the Kazan teams.
