It was meant to be a joyous occasion as the Kharkiv Masters football team stepped to receive their gold medal for winning the Asia Pacific Masters Games 2018 football men’s 55 years and above open category yesterday morning, but it turned out to be a somber and emotional affair.

Tears flowed as the Kharkiv Masters team members, led by team captain Oleksandr Luhanskyi received their medals from Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Rashid Hasnon on Friday morning.

Just a day before, their team-mate and goalkeeper Oleksandr Shcherbinin had passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest in his hotel room. 

The Ukrainian side put up a brave front at the University Science Malaysia as they even had a short ceremony to pay respect and honour their team-mate before the prize giving ceremony.

Although they were already assured of the gold medal as the only team in their category, Kharkiv Masters were allowed to compete in the men’s 50 years and above recreation category.

 

 

They were supposed to face Mongol50 this morning (Friday) in their final fixture, but the Mongolians gave a walkover out of respect to the mourning Ukrainians.

Kharkiv Masters ended their campaign in Penang with a record of two victories, one draw and a single defeat.Datuk Rashid presented a framed photograph of Shcherbenin earlier and at the prize giving ceremony, the former placed the gold medal on the photo frame held by one of the players.

For the record, Datuk Rashid was a team member of Kharkiv Masters as he had registered individually and was placed with the Ukrainian squad. APMG CEO Linda Geh presented him with his gold medal.

“I am getting help from my office to work with the Ukraine Embassy to help expedite the process of sending Shcherbinin’s body home to Kiev.

“I registered for the APMG 2018 table tennis and football competitions while I was the Deputy Chief Minister of Penang. I played in the table tennis competition on Sunday, but unfortunately could not feature in the football competition as I had some work commitments in Kuala Lumpur,” said Datuk Rashid. Luhanskyi, 60, could not hold back his tears as he spoke about his friend Shcherbinin.

“He loved life. He was always optimistic and he was the mental leader of the team,” said Luhanskyi.

“The team have been going around the world playing in various Masters Games since 2005. This is our tenth Masters Games together. I will present Oleksandr’s gold medal to his wife and daughters.  “I want to thank the Games committee who have done a great job, not only for the competition but also in fully assisting us after Oleksandr’s death,” said Luhanskyi. 

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