Four sets of rewards to play on first day of Olympic Games

On Saturday on the Olympic games in Torino there will be played 4 sets of rewards - biathlon, skating, jumping race and freestyle.

Of all these disciplines the athletes team of Russia have the greatest chances to earn Olympic medals in biathlon. In all on the Games -2006 the biathletes will play ten complete sets of rewards - in five for men and women. During the first day of Olympiad man individual race to 20 kilometers takes place. The composition of Russian command to this race is determined: Sergey Chepikov, Pavel Rostovtsev, Ivan Cherezov and Maxim Chudov. The trainers` staff defined Sergey Rozhkov as spare, and they decided to keep Nikolai Kruglov for the following races.

The first medals in the skating sport also will play man, which will compete on the distance of 5000 meters, where from Russia will come out Ivan Skobrev and Artem Detyshev.

The competitions in mogul will pass in freestyle. Ludmila Dymchenko, Marina Cherkasova and Darya Serova will present the Russian team in this discipline.

Men -jumping racers will play the complete set of rewards in the individual competitions (jumps from the springboard K-90 and race to 15 kilometers). Russians Aleksey Barannikov, Dmitriy Matveyev, Sergey Maslennikov and Ivan Fesenko are not among the favorites.

On Saturday also take place the first two rounds along the Olympic route on the one-place sleighs. In their pre-Olympic forecasts many specialists voiced the opinion that in the sleigh sport Albert Demchenko can become the holder of rewards. Besides, the Russians Victor Kneyb and Cyril Serikov will also come out to the start on Saturday. Medals in this discipline will be played on Sunday, 13 February.

Personal qualification competitions iIn the ski jumps from the springboard will take place. Sport pairs will enter into fighting at the Olympic tournament on figure skating and will perform a short program on Saturday. Medals in this form will be played only on 13 February after arbitrary program. The favorites of Olympiad -2006 are considered Russians Tatiana Totmyanin and Maxim Marinin. High chances to overcome for the rewards of Torino have Mary Petrova with Aleksey Tikhonov.

Finally, female hockey tournament starts on Saturday, on which Russian team will have to play its first and in many respects the key match in the group A with the Sweden team.

sections: Sport