Chronicle

Blatt updated candidate list

A presentation of the Russian men's and women's basketball teams, which will participate in the world championships, took place in Moscow. Men's team coach David Blatt announced the list of candidates for participation in the tournament, taking into account the latest personnel changes. Let us recall that two of the main creators of our “golden” success at the 2007 European Championship previously refused to participate in the World Cup - forward Andrei Kirilenko (Utah Jazz, Salt Lake City, USA, NBA) and naturalized American point guard John Robert Holden .

There are now 15 candidates for the men's team: point guards and attacking defenders - Sergei Bykov, Alexey Shved (both CSKA), Evgeniy Voronov (Red Wings, Samara), Maxim Grigoriev (Lokomotiv-Kuban, Krasnodar), Alexey Zozulin, Anton Ponkrashov (both Spartak, St. Petersburg), Vitaly Fridzon (Khimki, Moscow region), Dmitry Khvostov (Dynamo, Moscow); forwards - Viktor Khryapa, Andrey Vorontsevich, Nikita Kurbanov (all CSKA), Sergey Monya (Khimki); centers - Alexey Zhukanenko (Dynamo M), Alexander Kaun (CSKA), Timofey Mozgov (New York Knicks, USA, NBA).

Data on club affiliation is given taking into account transfers that took place in the off-season. The captain of the team is Sergei Monya. The final entry for the World Championships in Turkey (August 28 - September 12) will include 12 basketball players.

Contador leaves Astana for Saxo Bank

Three-time winner of the most prestigious cycling stage race, the Tour de France, Alberto Contador will compete for the Danish team Saxo Bank from 2011. Until the end of this season, the Spaniard will continue to defend the colors of Kazakhstan's Astana.

Contador joins the team whose rider he competed with particularly keenly at the 2010 Tour de France. We are talking about Luxembourger Andy Schlack, who took second place in the overall standings. It seems that the general manager of Saxo Bank, the formerly famous Danish cyclist Bjarne Riis, needs almost one hundred percent guarantees of victory at the Great Loop. The team will part ways with brothers Andy and Frank Schleck; these cyclists are waiting for the creation of a professional cycling group of the highest division in their homeland. The Swiss master of time trials and classic one-day races, Fabian Cancellara, remains at Saxo Bank.

Spain and Holland fined for rough finish

The football federations of Spain and Holland have been fined by FIFA for the undisciplined performance of their teams at the World Cup in South Africa. The final of the 2010 World Cup Spain - Holland became the roughest among the decisive matches of the world championships. In it, the Orange received eight warnings in this match, including the yellow card that was repeated for John Heitinga and led to his sending off. The Spaniards received six warnings. Thus, the Dutch federation will have to pay FIFA $14,480, and the Spanish federation $9,650.

In turn, Spain received $30 million as prize money for winning the World Championship, and silver medalist Holland received $24 million.

Rubin invited the European champion

Rubin Kazan continues to look for strengthening the attacking line ahead of the start of the Champions League. The Russian club is negotiating the acquisition of 30-year-old Turkish Fenerbahce striker Daniel Guiz, who two years ago won gold at the European Championships with the Spanish national team and also became the top scorer of the Spanish championship.

Earlier, Rubin, which sold Alexander Bukharov to Zenit, tried to buy the transfer of Wolfsburg forward Grafite, but could not come to an agreement with the German club.

At the same time, Zenit is close to concluding another record transfer contract. The St. Petersburg club will pay Porto 22 million euros for Portugal national team defender Bruno Alves. In this case, 28-year-old Alves, who is famous for his undisciplined behavior on the field, will become the most expensive player among those whom Russian clubs bought from foreign clubs. It is expected that Alves' personal contract will be concluded for four years, and his salary will be about 1.9 million euros per year.

Kovalchuk's contract will be reviewed in Boston

Today in Boston a review of the legality of Ilya Kovalchuk's record-breaking 17-year contract with the NHL club New Jersey will take place. The case will be handled by Judge Richard Block, selected by the NHL Players Association and the National League itself, one of the most experienced arbitrators in North American professional leagues such as NHL hockey, Major League Baseball and NFL football.

The case will be reviewed expeditiously. No later than 48 hours later, Richard Block will have to make a decision on whether the NHL was right to refuse to register the 17-year contract of the Russian striker, who, due to uneven payments (Kovalchuk will receive $98.5 million for the first 11 years and only 550 thousand for each of the next six years) will allow the club to bypass the salary cap rule.

Ulaanbaatar - a meeting place for chess players

The capital of Mongolia is hosting the fifth stage of the women's Grand Prix FIDE series, which will end on August 12. A dozen chess players are taking part in the round-robin tournament: Humpy Koneru (India, rating 2600), Hou Yifan (China, 2577), Tatyana Kosintseva (Russia, 2562), Antoinette Stefanova (Bulgaria, 2560), Marie Sebag (France, 2519) , Maya Chiburdanidze (Georgia, 2514), Xu Yuhua (China, 2488), Zhu Chen (Qatar, 2476), Zhao Xue (China, 2462), Shen Yang (China, 2435), Batuyag Mongontuul (Mongolia, 2421), Betyul Ildiz (Turkey, 2235).

After four rounds, Zhao Xue is in the lead with 3.5 points, followed by Koneru, Kosintseva and Stefanova with a half-point gap.

Prepared by Andrey VDOVIN and Ilya TRISVIATSKY