17 Jul 2016 at 14:30 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 15335 | News search

Winners Podium  (Photo by Original Tournament Article)

The 2016 Russia Minigolf Championship took place in Samara for the 2nd time in row on the 18-hole miniature golf course on 3rd-10th of July. 31 men, 13 women and 7 teams competed for 2 days in the main Russia minigolf event of 2016.

The host club was refurbished a lot for the great sport event: landscaped areas, replacement of modules in the wells, paved new paths, set gazebos for players and coaches. Nonresident athletes were surprised with the high level of attention of the city authorities and the media in the region to the upcoming competitions. At the grand opening ceremony special guests welcomed the event: Lydia Rogozhinskaya - Deputy Sport Minister of Samara Region, Igor Rudakov - Head of the Administration of the Kirov district, members of the Provincial and City Council and other officials.

As in last year's championship (and seemingly every tournament we've written about this year), Samara’s weather has tested the players. First there was the bright, scorching sun and suffocating heat up to 33 degrees (C) in the training and the first competition day. Then there was a massive western cyclone/storm chill and rain, which was the reason of the several times postponing the game in the second game day, but it did not reduce the activity of competitive athletes. Until the very last hole was a hard and uncompromising struggle. The fate of the first place in women contest was decided by just one hit. For the men it took a sudden death replay (playoff) in order to determine the winner. In total 9 rounds were played to determine the champions in men and women categories.

The winners of the competition were awarded with medals and diplomas of corresponding degrees of the Russian Golf Association, champions were awarded with Cups. Coaches Champions Alexey Korolkov and Boris Yakovlev received diplomas from the Russian Ministry of Sports.

Alexander Ershov - Sport Director of the tournament, the Chairman of the Russia Golf Association Minigolf Committee, admitted in his final speech well-coordinated work of the judging panel, headed by Chief Referee Oleg Nortenko (St.Petersburg), warmly and sincerely thanked Irina Baranova - the organizer of the tournament - director of the local boarding school number 117 and the Samara Golf Federation.

RESULTS:
Men
1 - Eugene Slivko, Moscow, 215 bpm (replay)
2 - Georgy Lazarev, Moscow, 215 bpm (replay)
3 - Nicholas Nagornov, Moscow, 216 bpm

Women
1 - Julia Korytina, St. Petersburg, 225 bpm
2 - Jana Lazareva, Moscow 226 bpm
3 - Natalia Machekhina, Moscow, 238 bpm

Thank you to Evgeny Kaplun for compiling the information for this article.

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