Kirilenko Meeting

By Ihor Duda and Steve Mazur

After the completion of the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver in February, Volodymyr Kirilenko, the official representative of the Ukrainian Olympic Sports Team, stopped in at the Ukrainian National Federation Toronto Branch and their Ukrainian Sports Club (USC) Karpaty. On his way back to Ukraine, he left a gift for display – the official 2010 Ukrainian Olympic Team parade uniform and other momentos.

Mr. Kirilenko’s main reason for the Toronto stop was to visit Stan Haba, the tireless head of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee in Canada. Mr. Haba devoted endless hours to give moral and financial support to Ukrainian Olympians since the independence of Ukraine. Unfortunetely, he has been in hospital for an extended period of time. Mr. Kirilenko on behalf of Ukraine wanted to personally thank him for his efforts that were worldwide. He was joined by Mr. Haba’s wife, Dzvinka, as well as Jaroslaw Kowal of UNF Toronto and his wife Ulana of UWO Toronto.

The stop-over coincided with a meeting of UNF’s USC Karpaty executive meeting. Mr. Kirilenko wished the club all the best for their work with Ukrainian youth in Canada. Wlodko Arendacz, President of USC Karpaty discussed the upcoming trip to Ukraine for the 14 and 15 year-old soccer players trained by Darko Kowal, member of UNF Toronto, and Ivan Chaykovskyy. The representative of Ukraine's Olympic Committee and member of Ukraine’s Sports Federation promised to organize friendly games for the visitors in Kyiv and provide cultural events as well. The team will play games and take in the Ukrainian culture and historical sites in Lviv, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk during the two week trip in July and August. Mr. Kirilenko, also thanked UNF’s, USC Karpaty for their international diaspora ties in sports.

USC Karpaty members have had a long affiliation with UNF Toronto (Slawko Borys – President) and are now officially part of UNF. The club has participated in international sports tournaments such as: the Ukrainian Sports Olympiad in Philadelphia in 2008 (heldevery 8 years) and the International Ukrainian Football Tournament (IUFT) in Nottingham, England in 2009 (held every 2 years). They have won many sports events including soccer and swimming in Philadelphia and won the Championship (First Division players) in Nottingham for soccer. USC Karpaty also signed an agreement with the professional soccer club FC Karpaty out of Lviv, Ukraine to co-operate in working together to promote Ukrainian diaspora soccer players worldwide and promote exchanges for younger players to gain world exposure.

UNF’s USC Karpaty have been designated by IUFT and the Ukrainian Sports Federation of U.S.A. and Canada (USCAK) to organize and host the 2011 IUFT Tournament in Toronto. The base for the tournament will be at the UNF Toronto Community Centre at 145 Evans Ave. More details will be available in the next few weeks.

Wlodko Arendacz hopes that other UNF Branches in Western Canada, Ontario and Quebec can assist in providing contacts so that we can also have one team from each area participate in the tournament.

Ihor Duda, Secretary of USC Karpaty adds, “We have plans to expand the Ukrainian Sports Club into other sports disciplines such as volleyball, basketball, tennis, swimming, chess etc. under the UNF banner to bring younger people into the UNYF-MUNO and sports minded adults to use facilities available at the Evans Ave. UNF building and surrounding community”.

For more information about the club and events, visit our revamped website (in 3 weeks) www.usckarpaty.com or contact Wlodko Arendacz at (416) 807-0988.