Kazan hosts World Curling Championship
The sports staff of Realnoe Vremya tells how the 'sports capital' got its next world championship, what this bizarre game is, the favourite of the Kazan competition, how the competitions are going, and how members of the national team of Russia created a team for mixed curling which is a new thing for them.
Why again Kazan?
The world championship that kicked off in the old Ice Sports Palace is to be the penultimate competition among the big international sports forums that the 'sports capital' managed to host this year. World and continental badminton, judo, sambo, high diving, junior synchronised swimming championships. This is what comes to mind off the top of my head.
This year will probably become the most fruitful year for the republic in terms of the amount of elite sport that Kazan has hosted. The last exam is in November – during the draw for the Confederation Cup.
'All curling events in Russia have been staged to a high standard; I remember the Sochi Olympics, where everything was organised incredibly successfully,' said the vice-president of the World Curling Federation Hugh Millikin at the press conference before the opening ceremony. 'We are hugely impressed by the Sports Palace. We are grateful to Russia and Tatarstan for such competitions.'
One should think it is easy-peasy to get this forum. When the Russian Curling Federation offered its colleagues from the World Federation Kazan, they paid an inspection visit to the sports capital and, as the president of the Russian Curling Federation Dmitry Svischev assured, 'they were amazed by your city'.
'Kazan has great experience in holding high-level competitions,' Svischev told. 'It competes with Moscow and Sochi. This is why when we were choosing the city, we did not doubt the facility and the very city were excellent. Enthusiasts work here. There is a federation here. And the administration of the republic likes sport very much,' the president of the federation summed up.
Curling is not so simple
The greatest part of the World Curling Championship is ahead. It is a sport that frequently becomes the brunt of jokes in KVN [Editor's Note: the Club of the Funny and the Inventive] among friends or colleagues: like for housekeepers – 'slide a pan and polish with a broom'. However, curling has been an official Olympic sport since 1998. It is the second popular sport after hockey in Canada. They respect their national team like big stars.
In general, it is not so easy. Only preparation of paths for top-level competitions is quite an event. One could think that athletes can use the same ice where hockey players or figure skaters train. But preparation of the area is much more complicated. At first icemaker sprays distilled water evenly, so that the ice becomes as slippery as possible.
'Every time before a new game, we clean the surface: we re-pebble and lay a new layer,' says Stefan Roethlisberger, who is the icemaker at the Kazan World Championship.
The same thing about the game. You get rid of the deceptive impression that the game is a piece of cake when you start to look into the rules. Yes, one doesn't need much strength, stamina or speed. This game is more intellectual. The skip pushes a special stone towards the target, which is 45 metres away. His goal is to get closer to the centre of the target. The skip needs to be accurate and has a strategic vision.
After the stone is sent towards the target, sweeps whose goals to correct the direction of the movement of the stone according to the skip's instructions join the game. The P
Players can polish the ice both in front of their stone and the stone of their rival in order to not to let it reach the target.
For next records
As we have been taught in Tatarstan, if Kazan started to do something on its land, it must have a prefix 'the most' at least. This time the World Championship has gathered 171 participants from 37 countries like in the Universiade. It seems it is fine for Olympic sport, but when you see bright green kits of the national team of Brazil that considers curling stranger than even Russians do, or the team from Andorra whose population is less than one district of Kazan, has the skip is about 60 years old, you understand that today Kazan has gathered all the people who do this sport professionally from around the world. But the Brazilians seem to be amateurs. Their team has two programmers, a jurist and a seller. They saw curling on TV and decided to do it themselves.
'At first we did it for ourselves. Work first, we did sport in our free time. Initially, we got acquainted with my partner, then we attracted our friends,' athletes from Brazil told.
What is happening to Russia?
Other principles of team formation were another peculiarity of the Kazan competition. Mixed curling has been held for the second time. The previous competition was held in Swiss Bern last year. Why is it peculiar?
Four players – two men and two women – take part in the competition who change their positions from time to time: if a man is the skip, the other man also must be the second sweep – the player who throws the third and fourth stones of the team at the conclusion of each end.
The Russian national team had to be glad about the fourth position in last year's championship, though everything started fine – seven victories out of eight at the group stage. They are expected to win medals as usual.
It seemed the team Russia coped with the difficulty in playing in unusual combinations in Bern. In Kazan, the guys certainly look like a family. In some cases, literally, because the couple of world champions Aleksander Krushelnitsky and Anastasia Bryzgalova meet not only on the ice. Their compatriots from Petersburg Daniil Goryachev and Maria Duyunova play with them too.
'Aleksander and I make up men's team. Nastya and Masha are from women's team. Sasha and Nastya are going out together. This is why it was easy to become a team,' told Daniil Goryachev before the start.
Our national team are competing well at the moment. They won against the national team of Spain 8:2 in the first round. The Russians achieved their second victory with a more opposition against the Czechs – 7:5.
'We prepared for the Czechs more than for the Spaniards because we knew it was a serious team. We have met with them several times. We controlled the course of the game and finished the match with an advantage. Everything is great in Kazan. We like everything,' commented the vice-sweep of the Russian Anastasia Bryzgalov the official site of the Directorate for Sports and Social Projects.
However, the opponents of Russia are competing to get the first prizes without losses. The Canadians and Scandinavian national teams win without much effort. The 'maple leaves' are not going to return without a win.
'We like everything here. The organisers did a great job,' the skip of 'maple leaves' Michael Lizmore said to the page of the Directorate after a 9:2 defeat against the Frenchmen. 'Facilities here are as good as in our country, that's why we perform smoothly. But it's just the beginning. The world's top teams came here to compete, and all of them want to win. Of course, Norway, Scotland and Russia can stop us, that's why it's too early to relax – motivation is a key to success. We cannot return home without a victory.'
The competitions will be taking place until 22 October. And you will have some time to be amazed by this exotic sport. The playoff is ahead. It is when the main battles begin. Come!