Sport

Preserving sports traditions

On 22 September, Veksler Memorial Track and Field Race was held for the 55th time. About 350 athletes from Dubna, Dmitrov, Kimry, Konakovo, Taldom, Moscow and Sergiev Posad took part in the competition. Children and adults chose distances from 1 to 8 km.

The participants of the competition were greeted by Head of Dubna Maxim Tikhomirov and Head of the VTB bank department E.V.Pereguda that wished the athletes self-confidence and victory. Later, Maxim Tikhomirov himself went out on the distance. And some of the participants of the run shared their impressions of the event before the start.

Nikolay Nikitin (PJSC "Tenzor"): I took up running when I was a student, got a serious injury - tore my Achilles tendon, so I stopped running. Now, I'm getting back into sports: I ran three half marathons this year, the last one was in Moscow, "Autumn thunder", today, I'm running 8 km.

A half marathon requires preparation…

- I ride a bike, swim in the Swimming Pool "Archimedes", so I have general physical fitness. The main thing is to motivate yourself to such, so to speak, accomplishments. Since my time at the institute, I have had a dream to run a marathon. I didn't succeed then but now, I am gradually moving towards it.

Anatoly Afonenko (Konakovo, Runners Club "Marathon man"): I started participating in this race back in Soviet times, when it included long distances of 15 and 20 km. Today, the distance of the race has been reduced to 8 km but be that as it may, the competition lives on and that is great.

Do you participate in any other races?

- Annually, I participate in the competitions of the Golden Ring of Russia. I am from Konakovo, I have twice become the champion of the Tver region in marathon. And today, I am fond of triathlon, I regularly take part in competitions, in Nikolov Perevoz, although I missed it this year because I took part in the Triathlon Federation competition in Moscow.

Nadezhda Abramova (MKB Raduga): This is my first time participating in the Veksler run, but this year, I have already run 10 km in the competition in Pereslavl-Zalessky. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate in the Bolshaya Volga run.

How long have you been playing sports? What distances have you run?

- I started last year. I train every week, I run on the bike path "Velo1". So far, my maximum distance is 10 km but I think about a half marathon and a marathon.

Here, her son, also with a race participant number on his T-shirt, is tugging his mother's hand.

- Yes, he ran a kilometer for the first time today.

Olga Ponomareva (FLNP): This is my third time participating in this race, in general, I only participate in competitions held in Dubna. When JINR holds some competitions, it is always a pleasure to participate in them.

I know you play tennis.

- Yes, I do, I run a little, probably to help tennis and my health. I have no achievements, yet I notice that I always run faster at competitions than during training. It's always nice to take part in this run, the weather is wonderful today and for the first time, we are running together with my husband Dmitry Ponomarev (DLNP).

During the break between the awards, Director of the JINR Sports Complex V.N.Lomakin commented on the event. "Today, we are holding the 55th run in memory of Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Vladimir Veksler, we try to honor the traditions. These competitions are the oldest in the series of memorial competitions, along with the Flerov memory competition in swimming, Dzhelepov and Shirkov memory competitions in tennis. Almost 500 people have registered for the run, but fewer came to the start, A.P.Sumbaev was expected to run today that participated in one of the first runs, but the day before, he did not feel very well. Today, I see familiar faces not only from Dubna, long-term participants from Zaprudnya, Taldom, Dmitrov have arrived. Today, more than ever, JINR employees are participating. We have decided to encourage them and for the first time, we have made a T-shirt with the emblem of the run for each participant from the Institute. We do our bests to make the run more attractive and judging by the reviews, everyone is happy and Head of Dubna highly appreciated our preparation.

I would like to thank JINR Directorate that always supports us financially and also express gratitude for the support of VBLHEP Directorate and personally, to Acting Director of the Laboratory A.V.Butenko. The City Administration is very helpful in organizing the safety of the run, volunteers are on the course and the employees of the JINR Sports Complex also participate. Only through joint efforts does a sports festival turn out.

The best among JINR employees were:

among women in the 4 km distance -
Milena Kalinina (Administration),
Maria Alikina (SIM Office),
Ekaterina Kolosova (CED);

among men in the 4 km distance -
Alexander Podshibyakin (FLNR),
Denis Korablev (DLNP),
Evgeny Gorbachev (VBLHEP);

among men in the 8 km distance -
Alexey Altynov (FLNP),
Vladimir Morozov (VBLHEP),
Valery Pashinsky (VBLHEP).

Olga TARANTINA,
photo by Elena PUZYNINA