San Antonio is one step away from the NBA finals

Chronicle of sporting events

Basketball. NBA. Playoffs. Western Conference Finals . “Utah” – “San Antonio” – 79:91 (series score 1:3).

“Utah” suffered a home defeat for the first time in the current playoffs. In addition, the Jazzmen had never lost to the Spurs at home in the cup stage of the overseas league, having won all nine previous matches. In the fourth meeting of the series, San Antonio basketball players went to the free throw line twice as often as the hosts. Argentinean Manu Zhinobili committed fouls 15 times and was accurate in a dozen attempts. In total, the South American scored 22 points and became the winners' most productive player. The outcome of the match was decided in the last quarter, which the guests won with a score of 28:17.

Russian national team forward Andrei Kirilenko spent 36 minutes on the court, bringing Utah nine points, making eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Most of the Jazzmen's attacks were completed by Deron Williams - 21 field goals and 27 points scored. The hosts made only one accurate long-range shot and six “extra” turnovers compared to the guests. The fifth match of the series will take place today in San Antonio.

The Stanley Cup series begins

Hockey. NHL. Stanley Cup. Final. “Anaheim” – “Ottawa” – 3:2 (series score 1:0).

Anaheim fans snapped up tickets for the first two home games of the final series ten minutes after they went on sale online. Only one Russian hockey player is participating in the confrontation for the Stanley Cup - Ottawa defender Anton Volchenkov. He spent 25 minutes on the ice, more than any of his teammates. During the match, the “mighty ducks” had to come back twice, and Travis Moen, a native of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, scored the winning goal three minutes before the siren. In the regular season, this 25-year-old left wing forward did not particularly shine with his performance - he scored 11 goals in 82 matches. But in the playoffs, Moen has already turned on the red light behind the opponents' goal five times, although he does not shoot very often. Vladimir ILYIN

Bareev upset Polgar

On the second gaming day of the candidates' tournament for the September World Chess Championship, which will be held in Mexico, three out of eight games ended successfully. Magyar Peter Leko defeated Mikhail Gurevich representing Turkey (the total score of the series of six fights was 1.5:0.5 points). Gata Kamsky, competing under the US flag, forced Frenchman Etienne Bacrot to admit defeat (1.5:0.5). Our Evgeniy Bareev upset the only woman out of 16 participants in the tournament in Elista, Hungarian Judit Polgar (1.5:0.5).

Draws were recorded in the fights Magnus Carlsen - Levon Aronian (0.5:1.5), Ruslan Ponomarev - Sergey Rublevsky (1:1), Boris Gelfand - Rustam Kasimdzhanov (1:1), Alexander Grischuk - Vladimir Malakhov (1.5:0.5), Michael Adams - Alexey Shirov (1:1). The first round of competition will last until June 3. Then the winners of the series will form four new pairs, in which trips to Mexico will be drawn from June 6 to 14. Previously, the right to take part in the World Championship was given to Vladimir Kramnik (the current champion), Indian Viswanathan Anand (number one in the FIDE rating), Peter Svidler (silver medalist of the 2005 World Cup) and Alexander Morozevich, who was among the strongest quartet at the previous “tournament of eight”, which took place two years ago in Argentina. Vladimir ILYIN

Russian chess players won silver

At the World Women's Team Chess Championship held in Yekaterinburg, the Russian team won silver. On Tuesday, in the last, ninth round of the competition, the hosts of the championship beat the Botswana team - 4:0. It is noteworthy that the Botswana team suffered defeats in all nine matches with the same score - 0:4.

Sisters Tatyana and Nadezhda Kosintsev, Ekaterina Korbut and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya won victories on their boards. Thanks to this situation, the Russian team scored 15 points and secured silver medals. “Gold” of the championship for the Chinese. The Chinese representatives also have 15 points (excluding the result of the last round), but they are ahead of the Russians in terms of the total points scored by the chess players (28 versus 24). Olesya KOMAROVA

Heikova included in the coaching staff of the Russian national team

The mentor of Russian champions and Euroleague basketball players of Spartak near Moscow, Slovakian Natalya Heikova, is included in the coaching staff of the Russian women's national team, which will begin preparations for the final tournament of the continental championship in July. Euro 2007 will take place on September 24 - October 7 in the Italian cities of Vasto, Lanciano, Ortona and Chieti.

For the first time, a foreign specialist was involved in the preparation of the women's national team. Heikova speaks Russian well and is well known to many of our leading basketball players. The Slovakian was invited to the team by head coach Igor Grudin, her opponent in the super final series of the Russian championship “Spartak” (Moscow region) - CSKA (Samara). Also working with the team will be Grudin’s assistants Boris Sokolovsky (Vologda-Chevakata), Valery Lunichkin, general physical training coach Kalyu Korstin, the father of one of the team leaders Ilona Korstin. Ilya TRISVIATSKY

FIFA struggles with matches at high altitudes

After the president of the International Football Federation, Sepp Blatter, spoke out against holding official matches of national teams in stadiums located in the highlands (above 2500 m above sea level), the heads of the foreign ministries of Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia sharply criticized this approach, calling it "discriminatory".

FIFA refers to the recommendations of its medical commission, which advises against playing at high altitudes. Moreover, in such cases, the home team, especially Bolivia, has an additional advantage over the opponent. The Bolivian national team plays in the capital of the country, La Paz, at an altitude of 3500 m, and the players of the visiting teams here experience basic oxygen starvation. For a long time, Bolivia did not lose to anyone at home and in 2001 they sensationally defeated the Brazilians - 3:1. However, in the last two or three years in La Paz, the hosts have periodically suffered setbacks, and this fact will also become an argument against FIFA’s position. Vladimir ILYIN

Ilya TRISVIATSKY