The 5th Billiard Tournament for Lawyers Ran at Sudak
The Crimean town of Sudak yet another time extended its hospitality to participants of the traditional billiard tournament for lawyers, now the fifth one, that ran on 31 May — 1 June. This year the tournament paid homage to Sergei Lavitsky, attorney at law, billiard maestro, and one of the tournament's ideologists who passed away recently.
The tournament ran under the auspices of the Ukrainian Lawyers' Association.
By tradition, general partners of the 5th Closed Billiard Tournament for Lawyers in Memoriam of Sergei Lavitsky were Legal Alliance and Magisters law firms; Southern Law Group backed the tournament as a partner.
Green tables at Sudak Tourist Complex attracted 37 contestants — lawyers representing Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Kiev, Sevastopol, and Vinnitsa.
Vitali Lozinsky, Associate Master of Sports and 1st category referee, was invited as an umpire.
According to Mr Lozinsky, a particular flavour was added to the tournament by a growing number of lady participants most of whom demonstrated equal billiard skills with men. Although none of the ladies turned up among the winners they showed excellent game and strong will towards victory.
All top three contenders in this tournament were from Simferopol.
Bankruptcy commissioner Aleksandr Zolotavin achieved his bronze cup raising steadily across the playoffs and winning nineteen games in a row.
The spectators spent over two hours watching the tense and unpredictable duel of the finalists, the judge for the Crimean Economic Court Igor Dvorny and the consultant for a Ukrainian MP Vitali Chesnokov.
With Mr Dvorny initially leading 2:0 by games, Mr Chesnokov had been able to change the course of the contest and win the decisive third game, with two more successes following.
As the result, Igor Dvorny wrestled out the silver.
Vitali Chesnokov, the winner of the 5th Closed Billiard Tournament for Lawyers in Memoriam of Sergei Lavitsky, was presented a golden cup and a hand-made mahogany cue.
Mr Chesnokov, for whom this was the third tournament, said qualification of its participants was growing steadily year after year. It was increasingly difficult to compete, but it was also an incentive to practise billiards more seriously.
This opinion was supported by the fact that the tournament winners have never before won its prizes albeit being repeated attendees at the lawyers' billiard tournaments at Sudak. This year, however, they demonstrated perfect results leaving renowned favourites well behind.
Tournament participants and guests marked excellent level of its organisation, its increasing popularity and recognizability among members of the Ukrainian legal community, as well as the fact that the billiard tournament for lawyers at Sudak in its current shape was definitely promising to move out to the international level the next year.
