By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Published: 18 April, 2008
Tae Kwan do
An Armenian fighter for the first time achieved a European title as Arman Yeremyan became the continent’s champion in the 78-kilogram section in the European Tae Kwan do Championships in Rome, Italy, Panorama.am reports. On the way to the gold medal Yeremyan beat fighters from Moldova, Ireland, Belarus, Norway and Spain.
Weightlifting
Armenian female weightlifter Meline Duluzyan (63 kg) repeated her success of a year ago by winning the gold at the European championships in Italy. The 19-year-old athlete lifted 235 kilograms in combination, including 107 in snatch and 128 in clean and jerk, to beat representatives of Turkey and Bulgaria who finished second and third, respectively.
Meline’s teammate Nazik Avdalyan (69 kg) also won the gold showing 242 kg in combined (106 kg plus 136 kg). She outdid athletes from Russia and Bulgaria that finished second and third, respectively.
Hripsime Khurshudyan (75 kg) managed only a “little gold medal” in clean and jerk.
Armenia’s weightlifter Tigran Martirosyan (69 kg) won the European title among men showing the result of 346 kg in total (158 in snatch plus 188 in clean and jerk), leaving behind sportsmen from France and Bulgaria.
Football
The first leg of the semifinals in Armenia’s Cup Tournament were played this week. According to the Football Federation of Armenia (www.ffa.am), playing on home ground FC Pyunik (Yerevan) lost to FC Ararat (Yerevan) 1-2 and FC Banants (Yerevan) beat FC Mika (Ashtarak) 3-1. The second-leg semifinals are scheduled for April 23.
Meanwhile, having shown good results in several friendly games, Armenia have moved five positions up to settle on the 78th spot on the FIFA world rankings for April. This is the highest world rating for Armenia since it joined FIFA in 1992. The more than 200-nation list is topped by Argentina, followed by Brazil and Italy. Full rankings are available on FIFA’s official website (www.fifa.com)
Chess
Armenian GM Levon Aronyan will participate in the M-Tel Masters Tournament to be held from May 7 (official opening) to May 18, 2008, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Aronyan’s opponents will be GMs Topalov (Bulgaria), Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Cheparinov (Bulgaria), Bu Xiangzhi (China).
More than a dozen Armenian chess players will participate in the 9th European Individual Championships (men’s and women’s tournaments) held from April 20 (opening ceremony) to May 3, 2008, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Among men to play in Plovdiv are GMs Vladimir Hakobyan, Gabriel Sargsyan, Karen Asryan, Tigran L. Petrosyan, Artashes Minasyan, Tigran Kotanjyan, Ashot Anastasyan, FIDE Master Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Dmitri Harutyunyan.
Among women are WGMs Elina Danielyan, Lilit Mkrtchyan, Nelli Aghinyan, WIMs Lilit Galoyan, Siranush Andreasyan, and Anna Hayrapetyan.
Armenian GMs Sergei Movsesian (Slovakia) and Sergey Grigoriants (Russia) will also participate in the event.
Meanwhile, Armenian GM Vladimir Hakobyan became Russian Club Cup Champion 2008 with “Ural” team. The tournament was held in Dagomis (near Sochi).
(Source: www.armchess.am)
I am really happy about the 78th place. It is great to be in front of Georgia (don’t ask why). Though, anyone who knows about this ranking, would realize that it means nothing as we climbed up only because of some positive results in friendly games. But the numbers are important aren’t they?
Football is definitely NOT the sport Armenia is good at. Far from it. So, I don’t know why it was even mentioned in that article.
HAXTEL ENQ!!!!
HAXTUM ENQ!!!
U HAXTELU ENQ!!!
Actually I am not sure haxtelenq te och. I have been very disappointed with our wrestlers and our boxers. Our ski team is a joke (why do we even have it), and among those sports that we have been traditionally good only weightlifting and chess have survived. It has been a long time since we had a respectable figure in track and field, and for a country that holds European record in long jumping, this is rather embarrassing. In gymnastics, we haven’t had a single athlete who could rise to the same level as the ones in the older generation. The list goes on and on, and instead they are investing in ice hockey. Hell yes, that is what we need, ice hockey.
V- football is the most popular game in Armenia and that is why ArmeniaNow wanted us to know what is happening in it. I just want to say that being on 78th spot is good but this shouldn’t be considered as an achievement as the rankings work in a strange way. I also think that we have been traditionally good at football. For a small country like ours it is hard to produce 20-22 good footballer in any particular decade. We did it once, and after that we only had one or two world class players in each decade. It is an expansive sport if you want to become world champion. Practically for us, because for us to succeed at a high level it means that the whole country should start playing football. If you look at France and others they have a pool of more than 3 million players to choose from for their final 22, we have 3 million people living in the country. So not much to expect.
Not that I’m totally impressed, but this is more than I expected for when I stumpled upon a link on Delicious telling that the info here is quite decent. Thanks.