Russia names best sportsmen of 2007
Published 26 April, 2008, 17:58
Long jumper Tatyana Lebedeva was named sportswoman of the year at a star-studded ceremony in Moscow. Fencer Stanislav Pozdnyakov won the men's accolade. Man’s Basketball and women’s Handball teams also received their awards.
2007 was a fantastic year for Russian sports. To recognize their achievements, the 6th annual awards of sporting glory were held in the capital.
“It just goes to show the depth in Russian sport at the moment. Our sportsmen are competing at such a high level in a variety of different sports, both at winter and summer disciplines and are taking gold in a number of them,” Vacheslav Fetisov, Head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Sport, said.
Tatyana Lebedeva has picked up a number of awards in her career, including a gold medal in Athens in 2004. She was honoured as Russia's best sportswomen.
She'll be going for gold on two fronts in Beijing, competing in the Long Jump and Triple Jump. With the games getting underway in less than 100 days time, Lebedeva say's her preparations are going as planed.
“I'll start to appear in tournaments next month. Of course every sportsman knows the goals in front of them and what they need to do to try and realize their dreams. I'll be doing everything in my power to win gold in Beijing,” she said.
The men's award went to Stanislav Pozdnyakov.
He's a four time Olympic Champion, while he's won ten world championship golds, all in the Saber category.
The men's team award, unsurprisingly went to the Russian Basketball team. Few gave them a chance of winning the European championships in Spain. But against all the odds, they beat the hosts in the final.
Aleksey Savrasenko was one of the star’s on that occasion. But he's battling injury to make sure he'll be fit for Beijing.
“I'm really hoping I'll be fit in time for the games. I had an operation in January, and after a few check-ups, the doctors said I'm recovering well. I'm going to do everything to make sure I'll be fit,” he said.
The women's team award went to the all conquering Handball team.
They kept up their amazing tradition at last years world championships to win gold for the third time, since the turn of the millennium, and will start as hot favourites in Beijing.
Swimmer Yulia Efimova won the prize for the most improved sportsmen.
She underlined her status as one of the sports up and coming stars by taking gold in the recent world championships in Endihoven.
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