Domracheva, Kushnir named Belarus' Athletes of the Year 2014

Belarus' oldest sports newspaper has held its traditional annual poll among sports reporters.

Three-time Winter Olympics champion Darya Domracheva (Sochi 2014) and 2014 Winter Olympics champion in aerials Anton Kushnir have been voted Belarus' Athletes of the Year 2014, according to the journalists' vote conducted by the Sportivnaya Panorama newspaper, BelTA has learned.

Belarus' oldest sports newspaper has held its traditional annual poll among sports reporters representing print and electronic mass media outlets for the 56th time. A total of 106 respondents cast their vote for the best athlete, coach and teams in 2014.

Belarus' leading biathlete and three-time Olympic champion Darya Domracheva collected the biggest number of points during the vote. She was the first in Belarus' sovereign history to grace the podium as the champion three times at one Olympics. Apart from that, Darya Domracheva had a very good season finishing 3rd in the IBU World Cup overall standings, winning the Small Crystal Globe in mass start. She also was second in Individual and third best in Pursuit and Sprint races. Darya Domracheva has been recently nominated for the AIPS (International Sports Press Association) Athlete of the Year Awards.

The second biggest number of points was collected by Sochi Olympics champion in aerials Alla Tsuper. Third went 2014 Winter Olympics champion in aerials Anton Kushnir who was named Belarus' Athlete of the Year 2014. The season for the athlete was not an easy one, first of all, due to the previous injuries. By January 2014 Anton Kushnir was back to his form to claim the victory at the FIS World Cup aerials in Deer Valley, the United States. In the four-man final in the Roza Khutor extreme park the 29-year-old aerial skier produced an incredible back-double-full-full-double-full routine (the highest degree of difficulty) to score an astonishing 134.50 points and claim the 2014 Olympic champion title.

The top ten in the Sportivnaya Panorama poll included: 4. Nadezhda Skardino (biathlon), 5. Andrei Kravchenko (athletics), 6. Melitina Staniouta (rhythmic gymnastics), 7. Marina Arzamasova (athletics), 8. Sergei Rutenko (handball), 9. Yevgeny Tsurkin (swimming), 10. Elena Omelyusik (cycling).

Nikolai Kozeko, coach of the Belarusian national aerials team was named Coach of the Year 2014. The Belarusian national rhythmic gymnastics team and the Belarusian men's national handball team were named the best teams in 2014.