Chronicle

Washington won't give up

Hockey. NHL. Playoffs. First round. "Philadelphia" -- "Pittsburgh" -- 3:5 (series score 2-4) - - Gonchar "P" (1+0), Malkin "P" (0+2), "Chicago" -- "Calgary" " -- 5:1 (3-2), "San Jose" -- "Anaheim" -- 3:2 OT (2-3), "Washington" -- "Rangers" -- 4:0 (2- 3) - - Fedorov “V” (0+1), Ovechkin “V” (1+0), Semin “V” (1+0).

Washington is making titanic efforts to avoid elimination in the first round of the playoffs. The hero of the fifth match of the series with the Rangers was Russian goalkeeper Semyon Varlamov, who stopped all 20 shots on the capitalists’ goal. Other Russian legionnaires of Washington also distinguished themselves, and Alexander Ovechkin has already called the next sixth match of the series the main one for the team throughout the season. The rivals suffered a loss before the decisive meeting: Rangers head coach John Tortorella will not be on the bench. The day before, the coach doused the fan with water and, just to be sure, threw a bottle at him, which the NHL management considered unacceptable in the playoffs and disqualified the specialist for one meeting.

Meanwhile, the Russian team is unlikely to be able to count on the help of Evgeni Malkin. His Pittsburgh, beating Philadelphia, advanced to the next round of the playoffs, and the Russian legionnaire himself scored two assists. The best club of the regular season, San Jose, was one step away from failure. By the middle of the fifth match with Anaheim, the “Sharks” were losing by two goals and risked being eliminated from the playoffs, but they managed to correct the situation and, by sending the match into overtime, put the squeeze on the opponent. But the Ducks still have good chances to create a sensation in the first round.

NBA opens budgets

Basketball. NBA. Playoffs. First round. “New Orleans” – “Denver” – 95:93 (series score 1-2), “Dallas” – “San Antonio” – 99:90 (3-1), “Miami” – "Atlanta" -- 107:78 (2-1), "Utah" -- "Lakers" -- 94:108 (1-3) -- Kirilenko "Yu" (15 points + 4 rebounds + 2 assists + 3 steals + 1 blocked shot) .

Before the start of negotiations between the NBA and the players' union on a new collective agreement, the parties advocated for the clubs to open their budgets and provide financial documentation. After studying it, the trade unions will put forward their demands for a new agreement. The clubs are in no hurry to give their consent, and they have time - the existing collective agreement will be valid until the end of the 2010/11 season.

Vuytek left Dynamo

The capital's hockey club Dynamo has changed its head coach. According to the official website of the “blue and white”, Czech Vladimir Vuytek left his post for health reasons. Before this, a meeting took place between the club president Mikhail Golovkov and the Czech specialist, after which a decision was made on personnel changes. The position of Dynamo's head coach was taken by Sergei Kotov, who previously worked as the team's senior coach. Before joining Dynamo, Kotov headed Krylia Sovetov, Sibir and HC MVD.

Mikitenko won the London Marathon

Russian Liliya Shobukhova with a result of 2 hours 24 minutes. 24 sec. became third in the London Marathon, which has been running since 1981. The victory for the second time in a row was won by 36-year-old Irina Mikitenko, competing for Germany (2:22.11). Maara Yamauchi from Great Britain finished behind her (2:23.12).

It is noteworthy that the world record holder at a distance of 5000 m Liliya Shobukhova participated in this marathon for the first time. Shortly before the start, she said that she would run strictly according to the schedule drawn up by her coach, and that her future in the marathon would depend on the result shown in London.

In addition to Shobukhova, three more Russians took to the start line in London. These are Svetlana Zakharova, Lyudmila Petrova and Inga Abitova, and all finished in the top ten. Last year's silver medalist Zakharova was fourth this time, European 10,000m champion Abitova was sixth, and multiple London Marathon medalist Petrova was tenth. By the way, three years ago Petrova finished here with a personal best and a Russian record (2:21.29).

The winner among men was Samuel Wanjiru from Kenya. The Beijing Olympic champion completed the marathon distance of 42.2 km in 2 hours 5 minutes. and 10 sec. and won the prestigious championship title for the first time. Olympic bronze medalist Tsegae Kebede from Ethiopia lost ten seconds to him. The third in London was the Moroccan runner Juad Karib (2:05.27), who won silver at the Games in Beijing.

The Australians received a technical defeat

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has decided to count a technical defeat to the Australian men's team due to the country's tennis federation's refusal to allow its athletes to travel to Chennai for the Davis Cup match with India, Reuters reports. Thus, the Indian team will continue its journey in the fight for the right to enter World Group I. Let us recall that the meeting was supposed to take place on May 8-10.

Officials of the Australian federation made the decision to abandon the game in the Indian city, fearing for the lives of tennis players and coaches. Now the Australian Tennis Federation intends to appeal the ITF decision. Before this, the teams of India and Australia met 11 times in the Davis Cup, and tennis players from the Green Continent won in eight of them.

Prepared by Olga ERMOLINA and Andrey VDOVIN