employees of Borodino enterprises of SUEK-Krasnoyarsk played ice hockey on Lake Baikal / Sports news of Krasnoyarsk and the Krasnoyarsk Territory / Newslab.Ru

At the end of February this year on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal – in the village. Maksimikha in Buryatia hosted the X Baikal Cup – a tournament that over the years has turned from corporate competitions into a real Siberian sports festival.

Coal miners of the Krasnoyarsk Territory took part in the anniversary tournament – the team of the Borodino Loading and Transport Department (PTD), which, along with railway workers, included miners from the Borodino open-pit mine.

This year, the organizers from the coal company and the Melnichenko Foundation presented a surprise: for the first time in the history of the tournament, not only bandy masters, but also teams playing with the puck, met on the ice of the sacred lake. Nine amateur teams, more than 120 players from different parts of Russia gathered in Buryatia to find out who is stronger.

“Ten years of the Baikal Cup is a whole era of corporate sports. Having started as a local event, year after year the tournament becomes increasingly important for our Company. And this year the scale of the Cup has grown again and new participants have joined it. Today, each of you has a great opportunity not only to test yourself in a hockey competition, but also to strengthen team spirit, communicate with colleagues from other regions, and tune in to new sporting and professional achievements,” said Denis Rakhimzhanov, director of logistics for the coal company.

For several days the teams played intense group matches, play-offs, and tournaments to reach the finals. Three-time Olympic champion, President of the Russian Hockey Federation Vladislav Tretyak came to support the participants. When asked about the quality of the ice, he answered briefly but succinctly: “Holy!” The master was accompanied by top stars: ex-NHL player Evgeny Artyukhin, seven-time world bandy champion Evgeny Ivanushkin, hockey expert Yaroslav Kuzmichev, famous promoter Kamil Gadzhiev and blogger Marina Kosacheva.

The first Olympic champion in women's single skating in Russian history, Adelina Sotnikova, presented a bright performance to the participants and spectators. The figure skater took to the Baikal ice and put on a real show. “I almost melted the ice with my energy,” the organizers wrote about her performance.

“It was unforgettable! — Andrey Volkov, a track fitter at the Nazarovsky railway workshop of the Borodino vocational school, shares his impressions. — This is my first time at such an event; Baikal fascinates with its beauty. In addition, I experienced incredible adrenaline from the game, a gala match with Russian hockey stars, and from flying in a hot air balloon! The Baikal Cup is more than just a sports competition – it is a celebration of life, friendship and fortitude. And even though we didn’t make it to the finals, we are returning home with a great mood, a lot of impressions and anticipation of new meetings on the ice of the sacred lake!”

As a result, the winner’s cup in the ice hockey discipline was taken away by the SGC power engineering team. The best in bandy was the team of the loading and transport department from Kuzbass.

Let’s add that every year SUEK-Krasnoyarsk employees take part in dozens of sporting events at various levels: from the working sports day at enterprises to the All-Russian corporate sports day “Games of the Titans”, where Krasnoyarsk coal miners became bronze medalists three times. The past year was also successful for the SUEK-Krasnoyarsk football players: the team became the vice-champion of the First Cup of the Russian Football Union among corporate teams, as well as the silver medalist of the Melnichenko Cup. In addition, for two years in a row, coal miners won gold at the regional GTO festival and represented the Krasnoyarsk region at the All-Russian level, where they always finished in the top 10.