Sport

Friendly atmosphere and sports excitement

The Jubilee 5th Christmas Tennis Tournament in memory of RAS Academician Dmitry Shirkov was held on 5-6 January in the hall of the JINR Sports Club. A record number of participants were gathered in the competition - 42 people.

By tradition, the tournament was held among couples. This year, it was possible to organize competitions for three categories: for men (conditionally - veterans; the average age of the participants was about 60 years), women and children (mixed couples, age from 6 to 12 years). Despite the warm, friendly atmosphere, all the games, especially for prizes, were held in an exciting and uncompromising struggle and kept the visitors gathered in the hall to the end.

Men's pairs that were nine of them in total were divided into three groups. After round-robin games, the winners in them made up the final group. As a result, the oldest couple became the winners among men - Oleg Koshcheev (SIM Office) and Mikhail Zakomurny. Their total age was 130 years. The 2nd place was taken by Andrey Kolesnikov and Nikita Vozhov and the 3rd - by Alexey Isaev (BLTP) and Sergey Levshenkov (CCD).

Six women's pairs were divided into two subgroups, the two best pairs of which formed semi-finals and played prizes further along the Olympic system. Among women's couples, Anna Sumbaeva (UC) and Elena Pankratova (VBLHEP) became the best. Ekaterina Vitalieva and Kristina Dumbrais took the 2nd place and Yulia Zaitseva and Maria Pulova took the 3rd place.

The oldest participant of tournament - Mikhail Zakomurny

Children's couples (there were also six of them) also first played in groups, the winners of which immediately reached the final and the couples that took the 2nd places in the groups fought for the 3rd place. In the children's category, the Shirkova sisters - Sonya (11 years old) and Nina (9 years old) became the winners. The 2nd place was taken by Liya Atanova (9 years old) and Vasily Kudryashov (12 years old) and the 3rd place was taken by Kostya Aksenov (the youngest participant in the tournament, he is only 6 years old) and Alexander Shuvatov (12 years old).

Tournament winners among children's couples Kostya Aksenov and Sasha Shuvatov	Winners among children's couples Nina and Sofya Shirkovas are playing

The tournament was organized by the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics (Director - Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences D.I.Kazakov, student of D.V.Shirkov), JINR Sports Complex and the family members - Dmitry Vasilievich's sons Grigory and Petr, grandson Nikolay. Interest in the tournament among tennis fans of Dubna increases from year to year and not everyone was able to take part in the competition due to the limited time regulations (only two days).

The family members of Dmitry Shirkov, Professor A.P.Isaev (BLTP), D.V.Peshekhonov (VBLHEP) and Director of the JINR Sports Complex Valery Lomakin took part in the opening ceremonies of the tournament, awarding of the participants and summing up the results.

Nikolay and Petr Shirkovs,
photos by Lyubov KRYLOVA