Penza, 8 August 2012. PenzaNews. As of Wednesday morning, August 8 Penza sportsmen had on their account one Olympic gold, four silver and two bronze medals. This number of medals beats the teams of some countries, like Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. This was stated by the Acting chairman of the committee of Physical Education, Sports and Tourism of the Penza region Artur Panteleyev during a meeting with journalists.

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According to him, this result was achieved for the first time in the history of Penza sports.

“At the previous Olympics Penza athletes managed to win four medals, while now they made it up to seven, and we hope that this is not the limit. I’d like them to gain a medal in athletics, for example,” he said.

According to Artur Panteleyev, the fact that the Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has sent his congratulations on Olympic medals to Penza governor Vasily Bochkarev before the actual ending of the Olympics is the evidence of Penza significant contribution to the overall athletic success of the country.

“For instance, Mordovia, with which we have always secretly competed, now has only one medal won by Darya Pishchalnikova,” he noted.

The representative of the regional sports committee expressed his admiration, in particular, by the performance of Ilya Zakharov in individual three-meter springboard diving.

“It’s fantastic. He beat the Chinese, who are regarded to be invincible,” said Artur Panteleyev, adding that on the return of the athletes a grand ceremony honoring Olympic winners will be held in Penza.

“Every Olympic winner will receive a money reward, which will include incentives from the budgets of the Penza region, the Russian Olympic Committee and federations represented by the athletes,” summed up Artur Panteleyev.