The Beijing Olympics may be over, but Kazakh uranium industry workers are now holding their own mini-Olympics. KazAtomProm announced that its 8th Annual Sports Contest began on 25 August, with almost 1000 workers from the Kazakh uranium industry competing over the next five days at Almaty's Central Stadium. The workers are divided into 22 teams representing various business sub-divisions, affiliates, joint ventures and subsidiaries of KazAtomProm. The teams will compete in mini-football, volleyball, tennis, ping-pong, badminton, chess, blitz chess, track-and-field events and billiards. The contest will end with an award ceremony on 30 August. State-owned KazAtomProm said that the tournament demonstrates the "commitment of the company's staff to an active and healthy lifestyle as well as promoting sports values in Kazakhstan society."

The fourth annual "Energy of the Baltic Sea" sports competition has been held this week at the Leningrad nuclear power plant. The competition is held between teams of workers from several nuclear power plants in western Russian (including Balakovo, Volgodonsk, Kalinin, Kola, Leningrad and Smolensk), the Nuclear Energy Institute of St Petersburg and the Yuventa youth sports club. The four-day program of events included orienteering, tree- and rock-climbing, relay racing, volleyball, football and "water tourism" (rafting, kayaking, etc). In addition, there were contests for the best greeting, the best bivouac and the best traveller's song. The contest also included quizzes on geography, science, local history and nuclear power engineering. By the end of the second day, the team from Volgodonsk were leading, having won three gold medals and a bronze. Meanwhile, a team from Rosenergoatom is competing in the "Atomiad 2008" competition which has started in Novouralsk, southern Russia. Four teams, comprising some 300 competitors, will compete for the title as best in the nuclear industry. Events will include football, volleyball, tennis, ping-pong, badminton, swimming, track and field events, darts and weightlifting. Workers from the Volgodonsk plant have, in addition, been participating in an 800 kilometer cycle ride from their plant to the Zaporizhzhya plant in Ukraine. Riders from both plants set off on 24 June and arrived in the town of Energodar, close to the Zaporizhzhya plant, on 1 July. They were welcomed by the plant's director general, the town's mayor and a brass band.

On 24 June, a 700 km cycle race kicks off from the Volgodonsk nuclear power plant in southern Russia to the Zaporizhzhya plant in Ukraine. The race is aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle and reinforcing friendship between the satellite towns of both plants. This is the third such race that Volgodonsk has organized. The first, held in 2004, travelled a route between the Volgodonsk and Novovoronezh nuclear power plants, both in Russia. The second, in 2007, was between the Volgodonsk and Balakovo plants. The cycling team is headed by Gennadiy Fomenko, human resources director of Volgodonsk. The cyclists will be cheered on their way by power plant managers, residents of Volgodonsk, and relatives and friends of cyclists, after being blessed by the local priest, Father Sergiy.

The Volgodonsk nuclear power plant has hosted the All-Russia Hand-To-Hand Combat Tournament for the third time. The two-day event attracted competitors from 23 Russian regions. Of the 107 fighters present, 12 were acknowledged as masters of the sport. Competitors from five nuclear power plants - Kola, Leningrad, Beloyarsk, Kursk and Volgodonsk - took part in the competition. Russia's overarching nuclear coordinating corporation, Rosatom, said that nuclear plants are "specific facilities requiring enhanced protection and guarded by strong and well-trained men." While representatives from the nuclear power plants won medals in the various weight groups, the team from the Volgodonsk plant were named the third-best team of fighters, after the team from the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the team from the Volgograd region. Among the nuclear plants, Volgodonsk was best, followed by Kursk and Leningrad. The director of the Volgodonsk plant, Alexander Palamarchuk, presented medals to the winners and invited the fighters to come again next year. In last year's competition the Volgodonsk plant came second, ahead of Volgodonsk region but behind the Moscow branch of the Federal Security Service.

Yuri Kaliapin, representing the 'Energetik' Club of Russia's Novovoronezh nuclear power plant, won the light weight final of the 2008 International Kyokushin Karate Open Championship, held in Szolnok, Hungary, on 5 April. He took part in four fights before being injured during the final against a Kazakh opponent. The referee wanted to stop the fight and award victory to the Kazakh fighter, but Kaliapin insisted on continuing. Eventually the fight ended in a draw, but could not be decided by the fighters' weights and so a tie-breaker involving breaking wooden boards was held. Kaliapin's rival broke 14 boards before the nuclear worker summoned the power to break 15 and take the title. The competition was a preparatory stage for the 4th World Championships to be held in St Petersburg, Russia, next year.