“Defending titles is more difficult than winning them”: KGUFKST rugby players won another tournament

Team of the Kuban State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism won Complex all-Russian competitions in rugby-7. The student tournament in the Olympic discipline with the participation of 9 universities was held in Kislovodsk.

Head coach of the KGUFKST team Anton Levchenko for “MK in the Kuban” spoke about the performance of the team.

– This is an annual tournament. We can say the student championship of Russia. This summer, the All-Russian Universiade took place. Her we won, and now confirmed the title of the strongest. Unfortunately, for various reasons, 3 strong universities that compete with us did not come to Kislovodsk – from Moscow, Krasnoyarsk and Ingushetia. Frankly, the hardest thing is not to win titles, but to defend them. Each university dreams of moving KSUFKST from the first line. And we have many guys who were leaders graduated from the university, and 50 percent of the team has been updated. It has not been so hard for us at student tournaments for a long time. Many guys who have just entered the university do not yet have much experience in such tournaments, so it was not easy. But we are also very glad that teams appear that create competition for us, do not allow us to relax, the tournaments are more interesting and intriguing. In total, they played 4 matches, in the group they defeated opponents from Nalchik and Perm. In the final part we played in a draw with Kazan PGUFKSiT. We were in the lead for the whole match, and at the beginning we took a 14:0 lead. But the guys may have underestimated the opponent a little and, after scoring 2 attempts, they relaxed. “Seven” – a fleeting game, got 2 free throws, a couple of times the ball was not caught and now it’s a draw 19:19. Then I had to go out of my way to beat DGPU from Makhachkala bigger than Kazan did.

We were in first place in the rating, so we played our match last and already knew how our opponents played. It was necessary to win with a difference of 34 points in order to take first place by difference. The task is not the easiest. Moreover, in the first 4 minutes (and halves last only 7 minutes) they did not score a single point. Of course, there was some nervousness. But the guys did a great job, they did it, showed character and skill, proved once again that we are the strongest in student rugby at the moment, having won 47:0.

Anton Levchenko also noted that this year the KSUFKST team will take part in another important tournament.

– On November 20, the classic rugby championship of Russia among student teams begins. We will debut in a similar tournament. It will also take place in Kislovodsk, the bases there are of a very good level, we are always warmly received there. Kislovodsk, together with Essentuki, is like a home for student championships. Well, the competition will be high. As a rule, Siberian teams dominate in classic rugby, and there will also be a strong team from Kazan. But we are not going to give up prematurely. In every game we will try to win, we always have the maximum tasks.

Composition of the KGUFKST team at the tournament in Kislovodsk

1. Maxim Savostin

2. Smelik Semyon

3. Kirill Parkhomenko

4. Shakhov Alexander

5. Denisenko Alexander

6. Lukyanenko Gleb

7. Sorokin Evgeny

8. Zhukov Daniil

9. Shishkin Denis

10. Igor Mitin

11. Krivolap Ruslan

12. Chernyshov Maxim

13. Vinogradov Daniil