Soviet athletes race to make friends in county track meet

By PAT DALTON
Journal Staff Writer


Photo by Linda D Epstein. Caption: Soviet athlete Zoya Leytan's Michael Jackson pin grabs the attention of Seneca Valley's Melanie Etz (second from right) and Karen Rauschenberger (left) as Olga Eshenko looks on.

The White House, John F. Kennedy's grave, the Vietnam Memorial and, of course, McDonald's restaurant are high on the list of places 40 Soviet high school track and field athletes want to visit during a weeklong, whirlwind tour of Washington that will include a track meet with five Montgomery County high schools Friday night at Walter Johnson.

While visiting the area, the athletes will stay at the homes of track team members from Walter Johnson, Seneca Valley, B-CC and Churchill, who along with Watkins Mill are participating in the meet.

"My first impressions are very good. The guys [on the Walter Johnson track team] I've met are cool and very friendly," said Valera Zacharov, 16, through translator Reuven Kitov, a Walter Johnson student who was helping with communication chores at a brief reception in the school's cafeteria last night.

"I can actually talk to them [the Walter Johnson athletes] with gestures, despite the language barrier. I want to help keep the friendship between our people. Friendship is the whole point of this trip," said Zacharov, a native of Klin, a Moscow suburb.

He added he likes Michael Jackson and Madonna and enjoyed the food during a visit to the new McDonald's in Moscow, although "it costs a lot of money."

Tatyana Boldova, 16, a high-jumper from Krasnodar, a city of 300,000 about 70 miles west of the Black Sea, said she is looking forward to seeing the sights - especially the White House - and competing in the track meet.

My best jump is about 1.7 meters [almost 5-7]," Boldova said, not realizing that would make her the county public school champ this season.

Soviet officials said the 20 boys and 20 girls on the Soviet team are from divergent locations, but all belong to the Russian State Sports Club. They said since Russian high schools usually don't have track facilities, athletes join clubs.

And although the Soviets are being billed as average athletes, Grennadiy Suvorov, a Soviet track coach from Moscow, admitted "some of our athletes are very good."

"One of our girls, Janna Drosdova, runs the 3,000 meters in 9:54," Surovov said.

Friendship through communication is the purpose of the athlete exchange, said event organiers Barbara Salkin and Jerry Kline, Walter Johnson's head track coach. In December, they formed the Pangaea Inc., a non-profit organization designed to foster friendship through high school athlete exchanges.

"It combines three things I love - kids, track, and international relations," Salkin said. "From what I understand this is the first time a track team of Russian high school students has come to the United States to compete."

Salkin, a public relations consultant by trade and Pangaea's president, was inspired to form the organization by the thaw in U.S. relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries.

"It's [student exchanges] something I want to do for the rest of my life. We plan to send a group of Montgomery County athletes to the Soviet Union next year," Salkin said.

"We both kind of fell into it because we both love kids and track and field," said Kline, Pangaea's vice president.