Latvia’s Jeļena Rubļevska has won the silver medal in the women’s modern pentathalon during the Summer Olympics in Athens. Her Aug. 27 victory brings to three the number of silver medals the nation has won.

Athletes in the modern pentathalon compete in shooting, fencing, riding, swimming and running events.

Rubļevska’s best performance came in fencing, where she registered 23 victories and eight defeats, earning her first place.

“After fencing, I tried to do my best,” Rubļevska told the Olympic News Service after earning her medal. “I think I performed as well as I could.”

A day earlier in the men’s modern pentathalon, Deniss Čerkovskis took fourth place overall.

The other two silver medals were earned Aug. 23 by gymnast Jevgeņijs Saproņenko in the vault and Aug. 27 by weightlifter Viktors Ščerbatihs +105-kilogram group.

Athletes from Latvia who earn medals in the Olympics may expect premiums from the government: up to LVL 100,000 for a gold, up to LVL 50,000 for a silver and up to LVL 30,000 for a bronze.

For a compilation of Latvia’s performance in the Summer Olympics, visit the special section of Latvians Online found here.

Weightlifter Viktors Ščerbatihs has earned Latvia’s second silver medal of the Summer Olympics in Athens. Competing in the +105-kilogram group, the 135-kilogram athlete from Dobele on Aug. 25 lifted a combined total of 455 kilograms.

Ščerbatihs lifted 205 kilograms in the snatch and 250 kilograms in the clean and jerk, for a total of 455 kilograms. The gold medal went to Hossein Reza Zadeh of Iran and the bronze to Velichko Cholakov of Bulgaria.

“I never expected to win the gold medal,” Ščerbatihs told Olympic News Service. “Reza Zadeh is unbeatable at present. Maybe someone will break his records in the future.”

Gymnast Jevgeņijs Saproņenko won Latvia’s first medal of these OIympics, a silver in the men’s vault competition, on Aug. 23.

For a compilation of Latvia’s performance in the Summer Olympics, visit the special section of Latvians Online found here.

Gymnast Jevgeņijs Saproņenko of Latvia has won the nation’s first medal of the Summer Olympics in Athens, earning a silver in the vault. His victory Aug. 23 was in part due to an error by Romanian gymnast Marian Dragulescu, who seemed almost sure to win the gold medal after a nearly perfect first vault.

Saproņenko, one of eight athletes competing in the final, recorded scores of 9.712 and 9.700 in his two vaults, for a combined total of 9.706.

The gold medal went to Gervasio Deferr of Spain, who scored 9.737. The bronze medal went to Marian Dragulescu of Romania, whose combined score was 9.612.

Dragulescu scored 9.900 on his first vault, but on his second vault stumbled off the mat for a score of 9.325.

Saproņenko told the Olympic News Service that he was more than happy with his performance, but acknowledged that the error by Dragulescu helped him win the silver medal.

“I feel lucky to have won the silver medal as Dragulescu had a bad landing in his second vault,” Saproņenko said. “His first one was amazing, simply unbelievable. At that point I figured I was definitely going to be third. But that would not matter either way, as my goal was to be in the top three!”

For a compilation of Latvia’s performance in the Summer Olympics, visit the special section of Latvians Online found here.