Busy week for sporting Russian workers

The fourth annual "Energy of the Baltic Sea" sports competition has been held this week at the Leningrad nuclear power plant. The competition is held between teams of workers from several nuclear power plants in western Russian (including Balakovo, Volgodonsk, Kalinin, Kola, Leningrad and Smolensk), the Nuclear Energy Institute of St Petersburg and the Yuventa youth sports club. The four-day program of events included orienteering, tree- and rock-climbing, relay racing, volleyball, football and "water tourism" (rafting, kayaking, etc). In addition, there were contests for the best greeting, the best bivouac and the best traveller's song. The contest also included quizzes on geography, science, local history and nuclear power engineering. By the end of the second day, the team from Volgodonsk were leading, having won three gold medals and a bronze. Meanwhile, a team from Rosenergoatom is competing in the "Atomiad 2008" competition which has started in Novouralsk, southern Russia. Four teams, comprising some 300 competitors, will compete for the title as best in the nuclear industry. Events will include football, volleyball, tennis, ping-pong, badminton, swimming, track and field events, darts and weightlifting. Workers from the Volgodonsk plant have, in addition, been participating in an 800 kilometer cycle ride from their plant to the Zaporizhzhya plant in Ukraine. Riders from both plants set off on 24 June and arrived in the town of Energodar, close to the Zaporizhzhya plant, on 1 July. They were welcomed by the plant's director general, the town's mayor and a brass band.