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Chronicle
The European Short Course Swimming Championships kicks off today in Eindhoven, Holland. Athletes from 35 countries will compete for 38 sets of awards - equally divided among men and women.
The Russian team went to this tournament with the second squad. This is explained by the fact that the world short course championship will be held in Dubai in mid-December. Many leading Russian swimmers who were selected for the main team decided to deliberately prepare for this start.
Nevertheless, some athletes felt that on the eve of the championship in the AOE they needed to take part in the European championship. After listening to the arguments of coaches and swimmers, the leaders of the swimming federation agreed to meet them halfway. The team includes titled athletes - Danila Izotov, Stanislav Donets, Evgeny Lagunov, Andrey Grechin, Yana Martynova, Ksenia Moskvina and others.
The team does not have a medal plan for this championship. However, according to the head coach of Russian swimmers Andrei Vorontsov, this does not mean that the athletes will not compete for awards. “There must be medals. And the more, the better,” he said.
“At the end of September we decided that a second team would go to Eindhoven. And it is very logical. For the main team, there should be one main competition of the autumn-winter cycle, and this is the World Championship. They already had the continental championship in the 50-meter pool in the summer in Budapest. At the same time, young athletes standing on the threshold of the main team have an insufficient number of international starts,” concluded Vorontsov.
Contador will take part in the assembly of the new team
Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador, suspected of doping, will take part in the Saxo Bank team meeting. According to the manager of the cycling stable, Bjarne Riis, the other day the three-time winner of the Tour de France officially confirmed his participation in this event.
“This is very important for us, because he must finally get to know the team and join the team. We are pleased that the International Cycling Union (UCI) will not put up any obstacles in this regard. In the end, this is just a training camp, not a competition,” the manager said.
Meanwhile, Spanish meat producers are outraged by Contador's statement that a banned substance - clenbuterol - entered his body with low-quality meat. The Spanish Beef Producers Association is calling on Contador to give an official explanation of where and how much processed meat he ate. Otherwise, industrialists will contact the Spanish prosecutor's office, cyclingnews.com reports.
Federer and Soderling won
The final men's tennis championship continues in the capital of Great Britain. The second round games took place the day before, in which Roger Federer and Robin Soderling won. The Swiss beat host Andy Murray - 6:4, 6:2, and the Swede beat Spaniard David Ferrer - 7:5, 7:5.
Murray's defeat brought huge disappointment to local fans. Moreover, after the meeting the Scotsman could not find an explanation for such an incomprehensible game. He honestly admitted that he served poorly and received terribly, and therefore with such tennis it was foolish to count on success in a meeting with Federer. “I tried to be quite aggressive, but I made a lot more mistakes than usual. I have to quickly forget this fight and get ready for the match with Ferrer,” Murray said.
In turn, Federer was also somewhat puzzled by the course of the match, since the Scot had won the last two matches. "I'm surprised that Murray didn't have a single break point throughout the game because he's one of the best return players in the world," Federer said. The Swiss added that he was glad that everything worked out this way, and in general he really enjoyed performing in England. In his opinion, it was difficult to imagine a better place to hold the final tennis tournament.
Mozgov won't make it into New York's starting lineup
Basketball. NBA. Regular season . Indiana -- Cleveland -- 100:89, New Jersey -- Atlanta -- 107:101 OT, Washington -- Philadelphia -- 116:114 OT, New York "- "Charlotte" - 110:107, "Dallas" - "Detroit" - 88:84, "Lakers" - "Chicago" - 98:92. New York, for which Russian Timofey Mozgov plays, defeated Charlotte on their home court. However, our compatriot’s contribution to the Knicks’ victory turned out to be insignificant. In ten minutes of playing time, Mozgov scored two points and made one rebound. Note that the center is not starting in the starting five for the fourth match in a row.
Dirk Nowitzki, who plays for Dallas, scored 42 points and 12 rebounds in the confrontation with Detroit. His scoring average (24.4 points per game) ranks sixth in the league.
EuroLeague Women's Basketball will change format
A meeting of the FIBA-Europe Women's Commission of the new convocation took place in Munich, the official website of the RFB reports. Russia at the meeting was represented by the chief specialist on women's clubs of the RFB department for organizing and conducting Russian championships and championships, Olympic champion Irina Sumnikova, for whom this is already her second term of work in this commission.
Of the issues under consideration, the most interesting is the project of changing the format of the decisive stage of the women's club Euroleague. The system for determining the winner in the Final Four is considered insufficiently effective in terms of popularizing women's basketball, and it is planned to switch to the Final Eight format. Moreover, this will not be a playoff, starting with the quarterfinals, but one-round tournaments in two quartets with subsequent matches for 7th, 5th, 3rd and 1st places. It is likely that already in the 2011/12 season the final phase of the Euroleague will be held according to a new scheme.
In addition, it was decided that the All-Star Game of European women's basketball will take place on March 8 in Gdynia. The issue of changing the qualification system for the European Championships was also considered. It is planned to move away from dividing teams into divisions A, B and C based on sporting principles and make the qualifying cycle uniform for all participants.