The city tournament "Boccia 52" was held in the Oka sports and recreation complex, organized by the administration of Dzerzhinsk and the public organization of wheelchair users "Paraplan" with the support of the Dzerzhinsk branch of the RANEPA, sports school number 2 and the Nizhny Novgorod regional public organization of disabled people "Invatur".

Competitions were held in two types of programs - an individual championship in three classes and a team championship in an open class. Daria Verenich became the winner among youth, Ivan Konovalov took the lead in VS-3 class, and in the combined group VS-4 and VS-5 the first place was taken by Nikolay Volgin. Among the teams, the best result for the team consisting of Anna Golovanova, Evgeny Abramov and Sergey Lebedev.

- In this sport I am most interested in passion, - Ivan Konovalov admits. - One of your unsuccessful throw or a successful throw of the opponent can lead to defeat. That's why the game keeps you on your toes. You lead through the meeting, but at one moment you can lose ...

Boccia - sports ball game, in which its participants - players with severe central nervous system lesions and spinal injuries - practice the accuracy of throws. Konovalov, as a spectator, met her during a sports festival in 2013 year. Continued training in Nizhny Novgorod, passed the classification and began to compete. Later, Ivan and his wife began to develop this Paralympic sport in the Nizhny Novgorod region. It was not difficult to master the game, the search for a training ground caused difficulties. Now Konovalov plays himself and trains other guys. In the future, he wants to get the title of master of sports in boccia, and this is only the minimum of his sports plans.

Mikhail Chetvertakov, head of the Paraplan public organization for wheelchair users, and Vladimir Gaidukov, coach of the Oka sports and recreation center, have been organizing the Boccia 52 tournament for the fifth year. Vladimir says, that boccia is excellent for the rehabilitation of people with central nervous system damage, as it develops fine motor skills of the hands, intelligence, concentration and precision. Gaidukov has been training at the Dzerzhinsk sports and recreation center for five years. The number of students is growing, youth is tightening.

It is worth noting, that this time it became possible to hold the tournament thanks to the victory of the 3rd year student of the Dzerzhinsky branch of the RANEPA Ekaterina Kuryzhova in the regional competition of youth projects and initiatives "Growth Drivers". As Catherine said, she participated in such a competition for the first time and immediately received a grant! Successful performance at the "Growth Drivers" inspired Kuryzhova to participate in the Ural Forum "Morning-2020". There the Dzerzhinsk student also won and received funds for the implementation of her project. Therefore, another tournament is planned to be held in Dzerzhinsk in February..

The safety of the competition participants was fully ensured and all recommendations of Rospotrebnadzor were followed. For obvious reasons, the tournament "Boccia-52" did not include persons older 65 years and guests from other regions have not arrived, therefore there were half the number of players, than usual. In spite of this, main organizer Mikhail Chetvertakov is glad, that the competition took place. At the end of the tournament, each participant received a sweet prize, the winners were awarded medals.

Ekaterina STIPIADI

A source: d-ved.ru