OREANDA-NEWS. March 18, 2008. The water polo team Uralochka-ZMP, one of the departments of JSC Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant (Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk region, part of ESTAR management company), have obtained the license for participation in the Beijing Olympic Games.

As Inna Gladisheva, press secretary of JSC ZMP, informed UralPressInform, the members of the Russian national team that goes to Beijing will be Tatiana Petrova, Ekaterina Kuznetsova, Julia Gaufler, Alena Vylegzhanina, Evgenia Protsenko and Tatiana Shepelina. The ZMP water polo players got the right to participate in the Olympic Games after winning the female teams qualification tournament. Now the Russian national water polo team is always formed on the basis of Uralochka-ZMP sports club. During the Athens Olympic Games the team included 4 players of this club; during the Sydney Games, when the Russians won bronze medals, there were 6 of them.

Uralochka-ZMP is one of the best Russian teams. Its achievements include victories at the European Champions Cup tournaments, Russian, Europe and World Championships. In 2000, at the Sydney Olympic Games, the representatives of Uralochka-ZMP as part of the Russian national team became bronze champions. Today the Zlatoust water polo school is considered one of the best in Russia. Over 500 people practice this kind of sport in Zlatoust. The club is located in the “Steel” swimming pool managed by JSC Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant.