There is the first victory in the top division of the national championship. The Ussuriysk men's table tennis team of the IPO FNT UGO is making history. She made it to the Premier League this year for the first time.
There is the first victory in the top division of the national championship.
The Ussuriysk men's table tennis team of the IPO FNT UGO is making history. This year, for the first time, she entered the FNTR Table Tennis Team Championship Premier League. Thus, it became the first men's team of the Far East in the highest division of the national table tennis championship and the first team in Ussuriysk, regardless of the sport, which made it to the most important league of the national championship.
Experts believed that the Ussuri team did not shine in the top division, and Mikhail Butylev (Ussuriysk), Pavel Tarutin (Arkhangelsk, Moscow) and Eduard Apaguni (Sochi) playing for it would act as whipping boys for their much more experienced and notorious adversaries. But that doesn't happen.
In the first round in November, the IPO FNT UGO lost three times to its rivals with a score of 0:3 and two times – 1:3.
The second round was much more successful. Firstly, the Ussuri team did not lose to anyone dry. Three meetings ended with a score of 1:3 – against the teams of UMMC (Verkhnyaya Pyshma), Kuban-Sedin (Krasnodar) and KNT Kazan (Kazan). We lost twice 2:3 – to the teams UMMC-ELEM (Verkhnyaya Pyshma) and Svyazist (Ufa).
And in a dramatic match, they won the first historic victory with a score of 3: 2 over the team CSK VVS (Samara).
After the second round, the Ussuri team takes eleventh place with twelve participants. And it is intended, at least, to keep positions. And maybe improve them.
Mikhail Butylev, the head and captain of the team of the International Public Organization FNT UGO, tells about the ups and downs of the fight in the second round.
– Mikhail, in the first round you played near Yekaterinburg. Where was the second round?
– In Slavyansk-on-Kuban, Krasnodar Territory. The flight itself from Vladivostok to Moscow and from Moscow to Krasnodar was much easier than the journey from Krasnodar to Slavyansk-on-Kuban. Everything is in traffic jams, everything is worth it. Settled in a hotel. In the morning we got up early and at seven o'clock we were already at the gym for training. We always came first, when the organizers still did not turn on all the lighting. We trained for two hours, and then everyone else began to drive up.
– Did you meet the team in Moscow?
– Not. Already in place. Pavel Tarutin was driving from the Russian championship among youth under 22, which was held at his home in Arkhangelsk, Eduard Apaguni from Sochi, and I from Vladivostok.
On the first day, the opening game was with the UMMC-ELEM team from Verkhnyaya Pyshma, a city near Yekaterinburg. Lost 2:3. In the decisive game, Tarutin lost to Maxim Kiselev 0:3, losing in each set with a difference of only 2-3 points.
2:3 lost to Svyazist from Ufa.They led 2:1, then almost in an equal fight Tarutin lost to Denis Gavrilov. And I couldn't beat Pavel Khripunenko in the decisive match. A little earlier, Khripunenko lost to Tarutin in the fifth decisive game 6:7, beating him 6:3. I hoped that Khripunenko would be depressed. Pounced on him. But he beat me in class.
The first days in the morning I took training from a guy from Krasnodar Alexei Chernyshkov. But unfortunately, this did not have a positive effect on my game. Then I told my guys that while we were resting between games, we would play among ourselves. They threw off 500 rubles. Whoever wins takes the pot. And all the competitions were held in this tension. Someone is “cutting” the official match, but we have our own competitions. And then they came out hot and started to play the main matches. And it so happened that when we began to play with each other at the expense, some kind of game feeling began to come. I think thanks to this I played with dignity against one of the best players in the world, Dane Jonathan Groth, playing for the UMMC. Managed to take the second set from him. Then, of course, he turned on, began to hit without errors. But still I liked the game, and everyone else too. Winning a set against Groth is considered a good result.
I took another set from Danila Travin from the team of Tatarstan KNT Kazan, who shortly before that played in the final of the Russian youth championship. And Apaguni beat Lev Volin, who a month ago became the champion of the UMMC youth cup. Those players with whom we play, unlike us, are constantly “cooked” in high-level competitions.
– Teammates are not offended that you cannot win at least one match?
– Not. They themselves are shocked by their good results. Tarutin won two personal victories in the first round, now he has three. Apaguni had only one defeat in the second round. And this despite the fact that Apaguni, like me, did not win anyone in the first round. And now he has won seven victories, which make it possible to grow in the rankings. Accordingly, he will have the best seeding at his competitions in the Southern Federal District. Therefore, everyone is happy with personal victories, in addition to the fact that there is a team result.
– So Apaguni, with such performance, will soon be poached from you …
– I don't think. They ask him: “How do you train?”. He replies that he has no one to play with in Sochi, he only trains children.
Take, for example, the Orenburg team Fakel-Gazprom-1. Four-time Olympic medalist Dmitry Ovcharov (Germany), former world number one Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus), three-time bronze medalist of the European Championships Alexei Liventsov (Russia), European champion Markos Freitas (Portugal) play for them. They have a machine that will crush everyone. They can't lose to anyone. How can he lose to some Butylev? He may be deprived of his bonus, this will be a blow to his reputation, to his rating.They led 2:1, then almost in an equal fight Tarutin lost to Denis Gavrilov. And I couldn't beat Pavel Khripunenko in the decisive match. A little earlier, Khripunenko lost to Tarutin in the fifth decisive game 6:7, beating him 6:3. I hoped that Khripunenko would be depressed. Pounced on him. But he beat me in class.
The first days in the morning I took training from a guy from Krasnodar Alexei Chernyshkov. But unfortunately, this did not have a positive effect on my game. Then I told my guys that while we were resting between games, we would play among ourselves. They threw off 500 rubles. Whoever wins takes the pot. And all the competitions were held in this tension. Someone is “cutting” the official match, but we have our own competitions. And then they came out hot and started to play the main matches. And it so happened that when we began to play with each other at the expense, some kind of game feeling began to come. I think thanks to this I played with dignity against one of the best players in the world, Dane Jonathan Groth, playing for the UMMC. Managed to take the second set from him. Then, of course, he turned on, began to hit without errors. But still I liked the game, and everyone else too. Winning a set against Groth is considered a good result.
I took another set from Danila Travin from the team of Tatarstan KNT Kazan, who shortly before that played in the final of the Russian youth championship. And Apaguni beat Lev Volin, who a month ago became the champion of the UMMC youth cup. Those players with whom we play, unlike us, are constantly “cooked” in high-level competitions.
– Teammates are not offended that you cannot win at least one match?
– Not. They themselves are shocked by their good results. Tarutin won two personal victories in the first round, now he has three. Apaguni had only one defeat in the second round. And this despite the fact that Apaguni, like me, did not win anyone in the first round. And now he has won seven victories, which make it possible to grow in the rankings. Accordingly, he will have the best seeding at his competitions in the Southern Federal District. Therefore, everyone is happy with personal victories, in addition to the fact that there is a team result.
– So Apaguni, with such performance, will soon be poached from you …
– I don't think. They ask him: “How do you train?”. He replies that he has no one to play with in Sochi, he only trains children.
Take, for example, the Orenburg team Fakel-Gazprom-1. Four-time Olympic medalist Dmitry Ovcharov (Germany), former world number one Vladimir Samsonov (Belarus), three-time bronze medalist of the European Championships Alexei Liventsov (Russia), European champion Markos Freitas (Portugal) play for them. They have a machine that will crush everyone. They can't lose to anyone. How can he lose to some Butylev? He may be deprived of his bonus, this will be a blow to his reputation, to his rating.And Tarutin in the first round, held in the village of Baltym near Yekaterinburg, won against the champion of Russia in 2017, Alexei Liventsov. And it was one of the sensations.
Unlike them, we understand that we have no responsibility, that no one will kick us out of the club. Therefore, the games for themselves and for each other.
– Tell us about the victory over the team from Samara CSK VVS …
– The victory over Samara is something fantastic. It was the last match of the last game day of the second round of the championship. And it so happened that at the same time the leaders of the tournament, UMMC and Fakel-Gazprom-1, played each other on adjacent tables. And here – Samara and I – outsiders of the championship. But everyone looked not at UMMC and Fakel-Gazprom-1, but at us.
We were losing 1:2 in sets and Apaguni was playing. The score is 2:2 in sets and in the decisive set he loses 3:6. His opponent take another ball and they have the win. But Apaguni takes four points in a row, wins 7:6 and literally screams with joy! His victory allowed to level the score in the match 2:2. And in the decisive meeting, Tarutin defeated Yegor Ovchinnikov. And also – 3:2. Tarutin said that after what Apaguni did, he had no right to lose.
After the games, the teams traveled together on buses to Krasnodar. Everyone thought that we would quickly lose to Samara and would soon go home. But we finished playing later than everyone else, and everyone was waiting for us.
After the match, the 70-year-old honored coach of Russia from St. Petersburg Arkady Elbert spoke warmly about us. Congratulations coach from Krasnodar Maxim Kazantsev. The coach of the Russian national team Sergei Vlasov got on the bus and said: “Thank you very much to the Far East! And Butyleva – to the Russian team! :).
– How did you celebrate the first victory of Ussuriysk in the top division of the national championship?
– As soon as the game was over, everyone began to go home. Apaguni immediately left by train for his place in Sochi. And with Tarutin we spent the night in a hotel near the airport, and in the morning we flew home. His flight was at 6 am, mine was at 10 am. Therefore, they did not celebrate in any way: neither champagne nor even chocolates.
Will there be more victories?
“I think they definitely will.
– How do your rivals treat you – not condescendingly and dismissively, as outsiders?
– In general, there is no such thing that we are outsiders. Seeing our results, almost everyone is already setting us up very seriously. And sympathy towards us was more than enough. Even when we lost 1:3, everyone said that we played great.
True, there is one player from the Ufa team there – Rodion Chmelev. I was passing by and accidentally heard him drop the phrase: “If you also lose to this (that is, to me), then you will go to the exit from the team.” He said this to Pavel Khripunenko after he lost to Pavel Tarutin. And he continued to say all sorts of bad things that he would quit tennis altogether if this Butylev won someone here.
And others, such as, for example, international class master of sports Alexander Shibaev or Croatian UMMC coach Zoran Primorac, reacted positively to our pranks, clapped for us, said that we were great, advised on what mistakes we need to work on. They were not indifferent. They see that there is no need to force people, that they are “burning”. The same Primorats did not advise any Chmelev that he needed to correct his technique, but approached me and we took a picture. Croat Andrey Gachina, a participant of two Olympiads, playing for UMMC, said that as a Chinese I want to cover the whole table from the right. The words of these people are already worth it to go there.
Everyone was impressed that we train more than anyone else, spend more time in the gym, and are most charged to win. We gnaw every match. No one spat, no one quit fighting. Therefore, when we won this match with Samara, everyone came up and congratulated us.
– Do you personally hope to win someone?
– Certainly. I want to win someone. This will override all other results. If I beat Jonathan Groth, it would be such a sensation. I would no longer have to win either the championship of the Far East or Russia.You could just tie with tennis. 🙂 It would be a result from the category of fantasy. Namely, such fantastic matches take place in the premier leagues. Because foreign players underestimate local athletes. And ours has nothing to lose. On the contrary, he will fight to the last. And there were such sensational results: the two -time medalist of the Olympic Games Japanese Japanese Mizutani lost to Arseny Gusev, Dmitry Ovcharov lost to Tarasa Merzlikin.
-Was there something that did not like? With the exception of individuals …
-In Slavyansk-on-Kuban, everyone was in the same hall. This is bad. Usually kneaded in one, and play in another room. So it was in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, so it will be in February in the third round in Orenburg and in the fourth in March-in St. Petersburg. And one hall cannot be allocated for competitions of this level.
-They say anything about Ussuriysk? You represent our city …
-For some reason, they think that a lot of money is spinning in table tennis. And some would not mind coming to train local athletes for a decent reward. They see that I am burning with this sport, what I think, who would be brought to us by a coach or player. And they believe that they can earn very well. It’s generally hard to drag someone here. Ilya Zhidkov from Yekaterinburg would be an ideal option. But it is not possible to bring him now. Other players ask for space salaries. But I do not need players who have only money in my head. They cannot give anything.
The players of the Fakel-Gazprom-1 team, as I said, earn a lot of money. And we all play for free in our team. Both Tarutin and Apaguni say thanks for being given a T-shirt, pay for them travel, and that they were generally invited to play for the Premier League team. But I understand perfectly well that the same Tarutin will call for any other team for the next season because they see that he brings glasses.
– Your team is probably the only one that they play for free …
– Yes, probably so.Even in the Super League, the players get small, but bonuses for every victory. They are given rackets, rackets. And we are all with our own.
-Here someone draws attention to your team?