Dayana Yastremska's Passport Scandal and Ukraine's High Jump Golds

The scandal with Dayana Yastremska's passport, Ukraine's golden double in high jump, volleyball and hockey semifinals - in Intent's digest of sports events from the South.

Tennis. Dayana Yastremska, the US government and a passport

Diana Jastremska. Photo: j48tennis.net

• This week and next week, the WTA 1000 tournament (the most prestigious after the Grand Slam series) is taking place in Indian Wells, USA. Four Ukrainians are taking part in it - Dayana Yastremska and Elina Svitolina from Odesa , Anhelina Kalinina from Kherson, and Marta Kostiuk.
• For Yastremska, the adventure began even before the matches began. According to the tennis player herself, upon arrival in the United States, she was detained for several hours at the San Francisco airport and threatened with deportation. The reason was that someone had filed a report with Interpol that Diana's passport had been lost, although she had it with her. In the end, after several hours of waiting, the tennis player was issued a document allowing her to stay in the United States for six months, after which her visa would need to be renewed.

Elina Svitolina. Photo: BNP Paribas Open.

• In the tournament itself, Dayana defeated two opponents, and in the third round she was eliminated by the second world number two Iga Sviatek. Marta Kostiuk and Elina Svitolina reached the 1/8 finals and will continue to compete next week.

Football. The first penalty kick for Chornomorets

Photo: FC Chornomorets.

• "Chornomorets lost a match in Zhytomyr against Polissia. However, the only goal of the Odesa team was an extraordinary event. The fact is that Denys Yanakov scored from the penalty spot, which was the first of the season in favor of Odesa. Previously, in 19 matches, such a penalty had not been applied to the opponents of the Mariners.

• Journalist Mykhailo Spivakovsky spoke about the potential new owner of Chornomorets in a video podcast on TaToTake. According to him, Armenian businessman Artur Hrantz, who is also the owner of Yerevan's Pyunik, is interested in buying the club. According to Spivakovsky, it is a "conceptual agreement" with the current owners of the club, Alex Borukhovich and Boris Kaufman. Official documents have not yet been signed. The club itself has not yet commented on this information.

Games and results

Photo: HC Storm

• Odesa Storm finished the first regular season of the Ukrainian Hockey Championship in third place. In the semifinal series, the Odesa team plays against Kyiv Capitals. The first game ended in favor of the Kyiv team, and the matches will continue this week. To reach the final, the team needs to win four games in the series. Kherson's Dnipro finished the season fifth and did not make the playoffs.
  
  Screenshot from flashscore.ua.

Photo: volleyball.ua

• The semifinal series in the Women's Super League has also begun. " Balta, which took third place in the regular season, started the series with two victories over Vinnytsia's Dobrodiy on the rivals' court. The series will last up to three wins, with the next match taking place in Balta on March 15.

• Real Mykolaiv exchanged victories in matches against Rivne. Currently, the Mykolaiv team is in last place in the Women's Super League, but the distance from their rivals remains minimal.

Events of the week

Yaroslava Maguchikh. Screenshot: Suspilne Sport.

• Gold double in the high jump at the European Indoor Championships - Oleh Doroshchuk won with the best result of the season (2.34 meters), Yaroslava Maguchikh had a jump of 1.99 to win her third gold.
• The Southern regions were represented at this championship by Vladyslav Shepelev from Odesa in the triple jump and Yulia Chumachenko from Mykolaiv in the high jump. Both athletes failed to reach the finals.

Screenshot: IBU.

• Ukrainian biathletes won bronze in the relay at the World Cup in Nove Mesto (Czech Republic). The success of Artem Tyshchenko, Vitaliy Mandzin, Anton Dudchenko, and Dmytro Pidruchnyi was the first for Ukraine in three years.

Yevhen Marusiak. Photo: Getty Images.

• Skeleton athlete Vladyslav Geraskevych and ski jumper Yevhen Marusiak have updated Ukraine's records at the World Championships in their respective sports. Geraskevych took 4th place, while Marusiak took 15th place.

Images of the week

Photo: Natalia Dovbysh/Intent.

• On March 8, Odesa hosted a simultaneous chess game with 40 children and international grandmaster Natalia Zhukova . The game was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of grandmaster, chess theorist, analyst and coach Yukhym Geller. Five young chess players managed to draw with Natalia. Our photo report can be found here.

Photo: Natalia Dovbysh/Intent.

As always, we wish you and your favorite athletes and teams all the best!

Адлен Муатс