Match in Kiev - the First Test

14.01.1960 (Sports)

Artūrs Sliede showed the best performance in the republic in the shot put in the boys' group. His result was 15.21 m.

In the last week of the old year, an invitation was received from the 1st Children's Sports School of Kiev to participate in a friendly youth athletics match between five city schools. We had not had such an opportunity to test our abilities at the beginning of winter, so we went to Kiev with justified concerns. No one had specially prepared for the competition. Will we "fail"? 

However, the first competitions showed that the best track and field athletes of our schools have not lost the skills and abilities they acquired over the summer. Starting in completely unusual conditions, without any special prior preparation, the vast majority of participants achieved excellent results, even new personal records. 

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The Riga city team was constantly "nipping at the heels" of the team formed by our republic's districts. In the overall standings, it took third place. During these competitions, the idea arose to organize the school team's test competitions in the future as a match between teams formed by the Riga city and districts. 

The Kiev competition also showed that some district track and field athletes have rested on their laurels from last year and have paid too little attention to special disciplines (Auziņš, Jakoba, Bogdanovs, and to some extent Rūsiņš too). It is good to play volleyball and table tennis in the winter, but one should not forget one's main task. The competition also proved that the other track and field athletes have come close to last year's favorites. The results shown by Meškovskā, Hauka, Plašmane, Liemane, Zemtura, Sliede , Žogota, Rikarda and a few others showed that the composition of the national team has become significantly stronger. In any case, the battles will be much sharper in the spring. The competition in Kiev created such a stimulus in the students that we had not seen before.  The immediate goal now is to prepare for the trip to Yalta scheduled for spring break (in March) to participate in the Ukrainian schoolchildren's friendly match. 

It should also be noted that the large-scale event in Kiev was organized by a single local children's sports school. From now on, such events will be held every year. 

A few words should also be said about the team's discipline and attitude. The Kiev competition management assessed us as an exemplary, disciplined and closely-knit team, setting us as a model for all other units. So we have also fulfilled our educational task. 

A RUDZĪTIS,

Coach of the Republican Children's Sports School