Lyon win another title

Chronicle of sporting events

Lyon once again proved that they are the strongest football team in France. The national champions won the Super Cup for the fifth time in a row, defeating Paris Saint-Germain in a penalty shootout.

The French Super Cup precedes the start of the national championship. And according to the established tradition of the last five years, both of these tournaments have only one winner - Lyon. In a week, the Lyon team will begin their campaign for the next, sixth and record, title of winner of the national championship, but for now the team's head coach Gerard Houllier was forced to do without a number of his main players. Juninho Pernambucano, Coupe, Govou, Wiltord, Abidal and Malouda, who competed at the World Cup, received additional leave and did not participate in the match against PSG. In turn, the Parisians lost Pauleta and Dorazo for the same reason. But their losses, apparently, were not as significant as those of their opponents, and PSG were the first to create a chance - Edward Cissé's shot hit the post. And in the middle of the second half, the guests opened the scoring. Jerome Roten played excellently in finishing, and referee Jerome Auroux recorded the goal.

By the way, it was not Oru who started refereeing this match, but Bernard Layek. However, the main referee was injured in the first half, and the reserve referee took his place on the field. He also awarded a dubious penalty against the Parisians, which was converted by Benzema. And soon the rest of the match participants had the opportunity to practice taking shots from the 11-meter mark. Almost everyone did it well enough; only PSG player Bonaventure Kalou failed to convert his shot, and his mistake cost the capital club the title. Andrey VDOVIN

Hiddink has compiled a preliminary list

Yesterday, the new head coach of the Russian national football team completed his second working visit and left for Holland. In three days, Guus Hiddink attended three matches of the national championship in Moscow: Torpedo - CSKA, Saturn - Lokomotiv and Dynamo - Zenit. Hiddink's next visit will be on August 5 and, after watching the next round of the national championship, he will announce the list of players who will be invited to the training camp before the friendly match between the Russian and Latvian national teams on August 16.

In the meantime, the Dutch coach has compiled an expanded list, which includes 25 names. “I attended several games of the Russian championship and I can say that there are quite strong football players playing in your championship,” the press service of the Russian Football Union quotes Guus Hiddink as saying. — I wouldn’t like to go into details now about what I liked about the performance of the candidates for the national team and what I didn’t. One thing I can say for sure: no DVD recordings can replace being present at the stadium. I watched a lot of discs and tapes with the games of Russian football players, but most of the information I gleaned from watching them with my own eyes.” Andrey VDOVIN

Povetkin has decided on his opponent

The next opponent of Russian heavyweight boxer Alexander Povetkin will be American Edward Mahone. Athens Olympic champion Povetkin will hold his ninth fight in the professional ring on September 23 in Germany, and Mahone will become his most serious opponent. The 33-year-old American fought 32 fights during his career, losing seven of them. It is curious that Mahone’s first defeat was inflicted by the Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko in March 1999. In a fight where the WBO world heavyweight title was at stake, Klitschko knocked out Mahone in the third round.

Alexander Povetkin will prepare for a fight with the American in Chekhov near Moscow, and not abroad, as most Russian boxers do. For this purpose, Povetkin’s managers plan to sign several sparring partners from America and Europe.

Meanwhile, another Russian boxer Grigory Drozd won the WBC intercontinental heavyweight title. In the first round of the fight with Argentinean Mauro Adriano Ordialesa, Drozd knocked down his opponent. And in the third round the fight was stopped due to the clear advantage of the Russian, and Drozd was awarded victory by technical knockout.

In another fight between Russian Sultan Ibragimov and Ray Austin, the winner was never revealed. One referee gave the victory to the American with a score of 114:112, the second, with a score of 115:111, to the Russian. The third referee recorded a draw in his judge's notes - 113:113. The winner of this fight became the mandatory challenger for the IBF heavyweight title, now held by Wladimir Klitschko. Andrey VDOVIN

Svidler and Leko lead in Dortmund

At the chess super tournament of the 19th FIDE category in Dortmund, the Russian Petr Svidler and the Hungarian Peter Leko took the lead. Svidler won with black against Georgian Baadur Jobava and then drew with Leko. In turn, the Hungarian in the first round defeated the German Arkady Naiditsch, who won last year's tournament.

All other matches in the first two rounds ended in a draw. Thus, Peter Svidler and Peter Leko scored 1.5 points each. The “classical” world champion Russian Vladimir Kramnik, as well as Levon Aronian (Armenia), representing Israel Boris Gelfand and the British Michael Adams have one point each, Jobava and Naiditsch have half a point each. Andrey VDOVIN

Paykov and Golovanov won gold at the youth Euro 2006

The European Youth Table Tennis Championship has ended in the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo. On the last day of the tournament, the finals in singles and doubles were held. “Gold” was won by our men's tandem Mikhail Paykov - Stanislav Golovanov. In the final they defeated the Englishmen Paul Drinkhall and Darus Knight - 11:6, 7:11, 9:11, 11:9, 11:6.

Previously, Paykov and Golovanov, together with Artem Utochkin, became silver medalists in the team tournament. Another award in the Russian team went to Marina Shavyrina and Valeria Lemeshevskaya. They received bronze for their performance in the women's pairs competition. Vladimir ILYIN

Andrey VDOVIN