Translated material
Week calendar
The last test of strength before the start of the final tournament of the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland for the Russian team will be a test match with Lithuania. Even if the opponent is not the strongest, you can’t do without sparring. Immediately after this game, the wards of Dutch head coach Guus Hiddink go to Austria and settle at a base in picturesque Leogang.
This week, before the start of the Euro, friendly matches will be held in different countries, both with the participation of not only the candidates for the continental championship awards, but also other teams, qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup in Africa, Asia and Central America. Here is the schedule of the most interesting fights. June 3. France - Colombia (Paris). June 4. Mexico - Argentina (San Diego, USA), Spain - USA (Santander). June 6. Brazil - Venezuela (Boston, USA).
Euro 2008 opens on Saturday with one of the tournament hosts, Switzerland, playing the Czech Republic at the St. Jakob-Park stadium in Basel. Starts at 18:00. local time (two hours more in Moscow). On the same day, another meeting of Group A will take place in Geneva between the finalist of the previous European Championship, Portugal and Turkey (22.45 Moscow time). On Sunday, the teams of Quartet “B” will enter the competition. The matches scheduled are Austria - Croatia (Vienna, 20.00 Moscow time) and Germany - Poland (Klagenfurt, 22.45 Moscow time).
TENNIS. June 2-8. The French Open is a Grand Slam tournament. Clay courts of the Roland Garros complex. Paris.
All quarter-finalists in the men's and women's singles will be announced on Monday, unless the schedule of matches is disrupted by vagaries of weather, as happened several times last week. Fights with the participation of the strongest eight players from both the stronger sex and girls are planned for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The further Roland Garros calendar looks like this. Thursday: women's semi-finals, mixed doubles decider. Friday: men's semi-finals, women's doubles title match. Saturday: final for tennis players (starts at 17.00 Moscow time) and determination of the winner of the men's tandem competition. Sunday: men's final (17.00).
BASKETBALL. June 5, 8. National Basketball Association championship final. Boston Celtics - Los Angeles Lakers. First and second matches.
Unlike the previous stages of the playoffs, the NBA finals, also played up to four wins, are played not according to the “2--2--1--1--1” system, but according to the “2--3--2” system for in order to minimize long-distance travel of teams belonging to various conferences formed on a geographical basis. A specific example: the path from Boston to Los Angeles is a journey across the entire country. Boston, as the winner of the regular season (66 wins - 16 losses), has the advantage of its home court (the Lakers' record is 57-25), so the sixth and seventh meetings of the series will be held at the Celtic arena. If, of course, these matches are needed. Well, the first two games on June 5 and 8 will also be held at TD Banknorth Garden, which seats 18,624 basketball spectators.
HOCKEY. June 2 and, if necessary, June 4 and 7. National Hockey League. Playoffs. Stanley Cup Final. Detroit Red Wings - Pittsburgh Penguins. The fifth game of the series (in Detroit) and, if necessary, the sixth (Pittsburgh) and seventh (Detroit) matches .
VOLLEYBALL. June 3-8. World/Asian Olympic Qualifying Tournament. 3--7th rounds. Tokyo (Japan). June 4-8. Traditional international tournament with the participation of women's national teams "Volley Masters". Montreux (Switzerland).
Teams from Italy, Serbia, Holland, China, Germany and Cuba will play at the tournament in Montreux. The Russian national team has previously participated in these competitions several times, but now the Volley Masters is not part of its plans to prepare for the Olympics. The 2006 world champions, the team of Italian specialist Giovanni Caprara, will play at the Cup of the first Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Tagil from June 11.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL. June 2-8. World Tour stage. Stare Jablonki (Poland).
The tournament in Poland is the last before a series of four Grand Slam competitions, one of which will take place in late June - early July on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. In the town of Stare Jablonki, women's and men's matches will be held in parallel. Two Russian teams are included in the preliminary entries, and they will have to start with qualification. This is Maria Bratkova - Evgenia Ukolova and Yaroslav Koshkarev - Sergei Prokopyev.
CYCLE HIGHWAY. June 8. Race of the Pro Tour series Critérium du Dauphiné Libére (France). Prologue .
This race is called a dress rehearsal for the most prestigious stage race in July, the Tour de France. Sunday's 5.6 km prologue will take place in the city of Avignon. The entire race consists of seven stages and will end on June 15 in Grenoble. Here are the names of the winners of the last six seasons: 2002, 2003 - Lance Armstrong (USA), 2004 - Iban Mayo (Spain), 2005 - Inigo Landaluze (Spain), 2006 - Levi Leipheimer (USA), 2007 - Christophe Moreau (France).
SWIMMING. June 2-8. Russian Championship. Moscow.
Based on the results of the national championship, the final composition of our team will be determined to participate in the Beijing Olympics.
ATHLETICS. June 3. International tournament "Tallinn-2008". Estonia. June 6. Memorial to Primo Nebiolo. Turin (Italy). June 6. Second stage of the Golden League. Bislett Games. Oslo (Norway). June 8. Prefontaine Classic Grand Prix tournament. Eugene (USA).
All of these competitions are included in the World Athletic Tour calendar, but have different significance. The highest is at the Golden League stages (six starts), then comes the Super Grand Prix series (five stages), then the Grand Prix (14 competitions) and regional tournaments, which are held under the auspices of continental athletics federations . The latter category includes the upcoming start in Estonia and the Primo Nebiolo Memorial.
FORMULA-1. June 8. Canadian Grand Prix. Montreal.
At the Gilles Villeneuve circuit, participants in the Formula 1 World Auto Racing Championship will have to overcome 70 laps of 4316 m each. The total length of the distance is therefore 305.27 km. Last season, Briton Lewis Hamilton celebrated his victory here, starting from pole position.
We remind you of the position of the top five in the drivers' championship after six rounds: Hamilton (McLaren) - 38 points, Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 35, Massa (Ferrari) - 34, Kubica (BMW-Sauber) -- 32, Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) -- 20. In the Constructors' Championship, the top three are Ferrari (69 points), McLaren (53) and BMW-Sauber (52).