European Individual: 2011
Individual European Championship: Konstantin Rybalchenko ranked 23rd
The captain of Petroholding Squash Club won Marcin Karwowski in the last match of the tournament.
The European Individual Championship has come to an end in Warsaw. In the final, predictably, the main favorites of the tournament - Gregory Goltier and Thierry Linku - met. In the most fundamental confrontation, Goltier emerged victorious, beating his compatriot with a score of 3: 1 (9:11, 11: 6, 11: 3, 11: 7). The third place was taken by the Dutchman Laurence Jan Angema, who in the last match defeated the Swiss Nicholas Muller - 3: 2 (12:14, 11: 6, 11: 8, 3:11, 11: 6). Note that this meeting lasted neither more nor less - 73 minutes!
This European Championship can be called successful for Ukrainian squash athletes. Last year, only Konstantin Rybalchenko was able to play in the main draw, taking one of the last places. Now our guys played in full force, and Denis Podvorny managed to break into the base through the qualification sieve. Yes, in the first round they were defeated, but they did not give up - and in the future they were able to prove themselves. Rybalchenko, for example, dealt with Wojciech Nowisz, and then, after defeats to Peter Kwieczyński and Miroslav Zeller, he got together and beat the owner of the courts Marcin Karwowski in the 23rd place match - 3: 1 (11: 8, 8:11, 11: 6, 11 : 7). By the way, the Polish champion Novis was "offended" not only by the captain of the Petroholding Squash Club, but also by his younger club partner Denis Podvorny, who defeated the Pole on the third day of the competition with a score of 3: 1 (11: 9, 7:11, 11 : 5, 11: 7) in matches for 29-32 places. And this already speaks of how much Denis has grown over the past year. But Podvorny is still a fairly young player - and there are still many opportunities for realization ahead of him. His speech in Warsaw once again shows that at such a pace he will soon declare himself in the international arena in full voice.
Ruslan Sorochinsky also performed well. Yes, his final result cannot be called high, but it is enough just to pay attention to the scores in individual games to see that the game against the champion of Ukraine was not easy for any of his opponents.
In general, looking at the results of, for example, last year's European Championship, we can confidently say that Ukrainian squash has grown by an order of magnitude. This means that its development is going in the right direction.
