Winners of public contest “Triumph. Heroes of Sport” announced

On February 25, a grand ceremony of the open public contest “Triumph. Heroes of Sport” took place in Falcon Club.

The contest was lasting from 10 to 31 of January 2016 and drew attention of all ardent sports fans. Every person could vote for his favourite athletes in four nominations on the website www.triumph.by or by sending a filled in paper ballot to the organisers. The nominees of “Triumph. Heroes of Sport” became those athletes who achieved the brightest results during 2015-2016 period.

Initially fans were offered to determine the best candidates for “Triumph” statuette only in four nominations: “Best Team”, “Best Coach”, “Best Male Athlete”, and “Best Female Athlete”.

Four more nominations were set up by the contest jury to mark “Result of the Year”, “Breakthrough of the Year”, “Brightest Sports Moment”, and “ Will to Victory”.

The intrigue of the Triumph chased away today, on February 25, at the solemnities for the laureates of the contest. Live broadcasting was entrusted to TV-channel Belarus 1 and international satellite TV Belarus 24.

In nomination “Breakthrough of the Year” the statuette went to Maryia Mamashuk, a silver medalist of the Games of the XXX Summer Olympiad 2016 in Rio (Brazil) and European champion of year 2015 in women’s wrestling. Mamashuk became the first Belarusian wrestler to have won a medal in this sport.

In nomination “Result of the Year” Maryna Arzamasava became a public favourite due to her splendid victory at a 800-metres event of the World Championship 2015. Her victory turned to be the first in Belarusian track athletics history of this particular discipline. That day Maryna also demonstrated the grandmaster result of 1:58.03 min. On behalf of Arzamasava her personal coach Natalya Dukhnova received the award.

“Brightest Sports Moment” nomination featured sambo wrestler Stsiapan Papou who won a “Fair Play” award for his noble gesture in the -74kg final round of the Baku 2015. From the very beginning of the fight against Azerbaijani athlete Amil Gasimov he was steadily passing to victory. Primarily Stsiapan was leading the score, but later Gasimov tied their chances. In the end Belarusian resorted to submission hold that made him triumphant of the European Games and then helped his injured opponent to leave the mat. The Executive Committee of the International Fair Play Organization made a decision to award Papou a diploma for his noble act in the spirit of just combat.

“Will to Victory” figurine was handed to swimmer Ihar Boki who gained six gold and one bronze medals at the Rio Paralympiad 2016.

This year’s “Best Coach” Volha Ulasava, a trampolining head coach of Uladzislau Hancharou, did her best to help her trainee at the Rio Games and thus she deserved nationwide acknowledgement.

“Best Female Athlete” title once again found Darya Domracheva. Darya topped the overall ranking of the IBU Biathlon World Cup 2014/2015. Since she has been competing far beyond the Belarusian border, the First Deputy Head of Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus, First Vice President of the NOC Belarus Maksim Ryzhenkov passed the award to Secretary General of the Belarusian Biathlon Federation Anatoli Stromski.

“Best Male Athlete” became Uladzislau Hancharou. He won a gold award in trampolining sport of the Games of the XXXI Summer Olympiad 2016 in Rio (Brazil). Uladzislau is a three-time medalist of the World Championship 2015 and medalist of the Baku Games 2015.

“Best Team” nomination starred the K-4 crew of Marharyta Makhneva, Maryna Litvinchuk, Volha Khudzenka, and Nadzeya Liapeshka, a bronze quartet of the Games of the XXXI Summer Olympiad 2016 in Rio (Brazil) and gold medalists of the World Championship 2015.

This edition of “Triumph. Heroes of Sport” became fifth in line after 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014. In 2008 its organisers concluded that the contest should be traditional and held every two years to summarize results of the Olympic season. In 2016 it was agreed that the Triumph would take into account the last two years to mark all sports achievements in Belarusian sports.

The organizers of the large-scale project are the National State TV and Radio of the Republic of Belarus, the Republican State and Public Association "President's Sports Club", the Ministry of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus and the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus.