Kiev Hosts Fifth FIVB Challenger

Kiev, the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, hosts a FIVB Challenger for the fifth-time where teams from Latvia have dominated the competition.  In the previous four events, Latvia has captured five of the 12 medals, including a 2004 gold medal by Janis Grinbergs and Andris Krumins.  Grinbergs has four total Kiev medals with bronzes in 2001, 2002 and 2005.  Krumins claimed a 2005 silver medal with Ruslas Sorokins after a 2001 bronze and 2004 gold with Grinbergs.  Brazilians won the first two Kiev events with Ukraine’s Mykola Babich and Oleg Nikolaev the 2005 gold medalists.  Kiev is located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River.  With more that two-million inhabitants, Kiev is an industrial, scientific, educational and cultural center in Eastern Europe.  It is home to many high-tech industries, higher education institutions, world famous historical landmarks.  The city has an extensive infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport, including a Kiev Metro system.  During its history, Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity.  The city is considered to have been founded in the fifth century as a trading post in the land of Early East Slavs.  It gradually acquired eminence as the center of the East Slavic civilization, becoming in the tenth to twelfth centuries a political and cultural capital of Rus', a medieval East Slavic state.  Completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a provincial capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbors: first the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, followed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, finally, Russia.  The city prospered again during the Russian industrial revolution in the late 19th century.  After the turbulent period following the Russian Revolution of 1917, from 1921 onwards Kiev was an important city of Soviet Ukraine, and, since 1934, its capital. During World War II, the city was destroyed again, almost completely, but quickly recovered in the post-war years becoming the third most important city of the USSR.  It now remains the capital of Ukraine, independent since 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Year - Kiev gold medal, Kiev silver medal, Kiev bronze medal

2001 - Murilo Toscano/Klepper Feitosa, Brazil / Vitaly Stadnikov/Sergiy Rasputiniy, Ukraine / Janis Grinbergs/Andris Krumins, Latvia

2002 - Jefferson Bellaguarda/Juca Dultra, Brazil / Mykola Babich/Dmitro Khudoley, Ukraine / Janis Grinbergs/Austris Stals, Lativa

2004 - Janis Grinbergs/Andris Krumins, Lativa / Tino Schutz/Jan Schnider, Switzerland / Oleksiy Kulinich/Olexander Dyachenko, Ukraine

2005 - Mykola Babich/Oleg Nikolaev, Ukraine / Andris Krumins/Ruslas Sorokins, Lativia / Janis Grinbergs/Austris Stals, Latvia