2 August, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. The Vitebsk region rejoices at the bronze Olympic medal won by their native, Maryna Shkermankova, reports a BELTA correspondent. The news of the first medal to Belarus's Olympic tally, brought home by the 22-year-old weightlifter, arrived on the evening of August 1. Already this morning, representatives of the regional executive committee, the National Olympic Committee, and journalists are heading to the homeland of the prizewinner of the XXX Olympic Games, Maryna, to congratulate her parents, Svetlana and Ivan Shkermankov, as well as Maryna's first coach, Viktor Vinnik, who prepared her for the current Olympic Games. Congratulations await the athlete as soon as she returns home. The Belarusian Olympic team included 17 athletes from the Vitebsk region, representing track and field, weightlifting, cycling, and rhythmic gymnastics. Among them are cycling representative and world champion Tatsiana Sharakova, and track and field athlete Alina Talay. At international competitions of world and European level in 2011, athletes from the region won 152 medals of various distinctions, including 48 in Olympic sports. This is the second best result among all regions of Belarus after Minsk. In 2011, of the 68 Belarusian sports records, 27, or 37%, belong to representatives of the Vitebsk region.

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