Winter Fest, a winter sports festival featuring Yana Khokhlova and Roman Lyuduchin, took place in Tobolsk
20 december 2021
The annual Winter Fest winter sports festival took place at Tobolsk's Kristall sports arena. Nearly 400 children were able to take part in the two-day event. These included trainees from the city's sports schools focusing on ice hockey and figure skating, children from large and low-income families.
Winter Fest is an important event both for children and for their coaches. They had really been looking forward to it, and not only to be able to see these international stars, but also to learn some new skills from them. Currently, there are over 300 children in Tobolsk who practice ice hockey under the guidance of 12 coaches. Figure skating is also gaining popularity with more than 120 children practicing this sport and four coaches helping them, First Deputy Mayor Yana Zubova commented.
Master classes for budding athletes were led by Yana Khokhlova, a bronze medal winner at the World Championship and a regular participant of the "Ice Age" TV show on Channel One, and by Roman Lyuduchin, a former striker for the Russian national team, for Spartak, Lokomotiv and several other teams. This was the first time Yana Khokhlova took part in the festival in the role of a mentor. More than 170 children attended her master classes.
It is gratifying that SIBUR has been providing such great support to children's sports out in the regions. At festivals such as Winter Fest, children can find their inspiration for doing sports while their parents can support them in pursuing their aspirations. I know firsthand how much a coach means to an athlete! Their support, sincere belief in your success, ability to set you on the right track - these are the things that can provide a great start for the budding skaters. And on top of that, of course, you need to be taught proper technique, something we painstakingly perfect on the ice rink at the master classes. It is possible that some of the attendees of the master classes today may have decided for themselves that they want to become professional figure skaters and will dream of becoming champions, Yana Khokhlova noted.
Perhaps, six-year-old Stepan Koryavko who came to the figure skating master class with his mother Tatiana could just become one of them.
Stepan really enjoyed the master class. Today was his first time on skates but he already feels comfortable on the ice, Tatiana Koryavko shared. Such master classes are a great opportunity for beginners to try themselves at a particular sport whereas for experienced athletes this is a chance to show their coaches what they can do. Stepan has been taking dancing classes but he has also shown keen interest in figure skating.
Winter Fest sports festival in Tobolsk was organized as part of SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. Prior to the start of master classes, SIBUR provided novice athletes with skating aids: specialized skating equipment made in the form of toys. Beginner skaters can hold on to one and take their first steps on ice without fear.
The Formula for Good Deeds is a vehicle that makes it possible to implement motivational projects for children and adults. Winter Fest is an opportunity for children to talk to professionals and get their recommendations and advice for professional growth. Recently, as part of the Tobolsk-2020 program, a second indoor ice-skating rink was opened at the Krystall Sports Palace and so now the two-day festival is not interfering with scheduled practice classes, Elena Belskaya, Head of ZapSibNeftekhim's Department of Government Relations and Socio-Economic Projects, noted.
On the festival’s second day, a "Real Hockey" master class was offered by Roman Lyuduchin whose track record includes nearly 400 games played in the KHL and a nomination for the KHL's 2008-2009 Rookie of the Season Award. His career was launched on the day his parents took him to a skating rink at the age of four.
When I was little, Ilya Kovalchuk, just 17 and already a rising star, came to our practice once. When you see such a celebrated hockey player skate alongside you on the same ice rink, you naturally want to be like him, or perhaps even better. That's why we need such master classes and festivals. The more events like that take place, the more hockey stars there will be in the country, Roman noted.
Roman Lyuduchin demonstrated a number of special exercises to the young hockey players. Under his guidance, the young Tobolsk athletes perfected their skills of dribbling and shooting at the goal and did exercises to improve accuracy and speed.
Upon completion of the master classes, anyone who wished so had their photos taken with the celebrated athletes and received an autographed certificate.
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The Winter Fest festival has been held since 2015 in the cities of Tobolsk, Dzerzhinsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Tomsk, Perm, Noyabrsk, Kstovo, Blagoveshchensk, and others.
Over 13,500 children have taken part in the master classes led by star athletes, legends of sports, and Olympic champions.
The festival has featured the likes of Ilya Averbukh, Alexey Yagudin, Maksim Marinin, Fedor Kanareykin, Alexander Guskov, Sergey Gimayev, Maria Butyrskaya, Dmitry Ryabykin, Andrey Nikolishin, Sergey Shepelev, Elena Berezhnaya, and others.