Chronicle

Euro 2012 mascots presented

A presentation of the mascots of the 2012 European Championship, which will be held by two countries - Poland and Ukraine, took place in Warsaw. That is why there are two talismans. They are twin brothers, who differ only in their football uniforms and hairstyles in the color of national flags: the Pole is wearing a white T-shirt and red shorts, the Ukrainian is wearing a yellow T-shirt and blue shorts. While the brothers do not have names, they must be chosen by fans by voting from three pairs: Slavek and Slavko, Siemko and Strimko, Klemek and Ladko.

The mascots were presented by current and former players of the national teams of Poland and Ukraine. The ceremony was attended by Andriy Shevchenko, Oleg Blokhin, Andrzej Szarmach and Zbigniew Boniek. But even they had no idea what the Euro 2012 mascots would look like, the appearance of which was developed by the famous company Warner Bros., which had already participated in the creation of the symbols of the two previous championships. Perhaps this is why the Polish-Ukrainian twin mascots have older brothers that look very similar to them. The oldest of them, Kinesh, was created for the European Championship in Portugal in 2004, and two more - Trix and Flix - were also twins and symbolized the fraternal relations between Austria and Switzerland, which hosted Euro 2008.

In general, the tradition of having mascots began with the 1980 European Championship, when the tournament in Italy personified Pinocchio. Then animals became symbols for a long time: Peno the rooster (France, 1984), Bernie the rabbit (Germany, 1988), another rabbit, but without his own name (Sweden, 1992), Goliath the lion (England, 1996), another Benilaki lion (Belgium/Holland, 2000), and only then the children of Warner Bros. gave European tournaments a human face.

Four Russians could be selected in the first round of the NHL draft

Hockey. NHL. Regular season. “Boston” – “New Jersey” – 3:0, “Buffalo” – “Vancouver” – 4:3, “Philadelphia” – “Ottawa” – 5:1 – Kovalev “O” ( 0+1) , “Pittsburgh” – “Rangers” – 2:3 (OT) – Malkin “P” (0+1) , “Colorado” – “St. Louis” – 6:3, “ San Jose - Los Angeles - 6:3.

Four Russian players were ranked in the top 30 by NHL scouts before the draft. Of these, the highest, 18th position is occupied by 17-year-old Alexander Khokhlachev from the Windsor club, playing in the Ontario Hockey League. Besides him, among the Russians, Vladislav Namestnikov, who plays in London, Maxim Shalunov from Traktor, and Dmitry Yashkin from the Czech Sparta have a chance of being selected in the first round of the draft. The leader in the scout rating is Drummonville forward Sean Couturier, Red Dear center forward Ryan-Nagent Hopkins is second, and Skellefteå defender Adam Larsson is third, CP reports.

Harris sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct

Basketball. NBA. Regular season. “Charlotte” – “Minnesota” – 113:110, “Orlando” – “Memphis” – 89:72, “Dallas” – “New Orleans” – 98:95, “Phoenix” – “ Denver - 100:94, Utah - Oklahoma - 108:115, Golden State - Detroit - 101:97, Clippers - New Jersey - 96 :110.

Nets point guard Devin Harris was forced to leave the court early. In a match with the Clippers, he stopped Blake Griffin's breakout and threw his opponent to the floor with both hands, earning him an ejection for unsportsmanlike conduct.

At the same time, Mikhail Prokhorov's club still won, which became its fourth in ten matches of the current regular season. With this indicator, New Jersey ranks ninth in the Eastern Conference standings.

Klitschko and Haye are trying to agree on a fight

WBC world heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko and WBA champion David Haye have resumed their squabble in the press over the possibility of a unification fight. The other day, Haye, having defeated Audley Harrison by knockout in the third round, defended his title and put forward new demands to the Klitschko brothers. Previously, Haye insisted on an equal division of the purse, and now he has announced his desire to fight Vitali Klitschko only in the UK, and not in Germany, as previously proposed. In addition, Haye stated that 2011 will be his last in the professional ring.

“I’m ready to fight in the USA, Germany or UK. Where the best financial conditions will be offered,” Vitaly said in turn on the BBC. “I’m ready to sign a contract at any moment and split the fee in half.” We're both champions, so let's fight. And let's do it in the spring. I’m ready, now it’s up to Haye.”

The draw for the ATP Championship has taken place

In London (Great Britain) the draw took place for the final men's tennis tournament of 2010 - the ATP Championship, which will be held in the capital of the 2012 Summer Olympics from November 21 to 28.

According to a long-established tradition, at the preliminary stage, the eight currently strongest masters of the big racket are divided into two quartets. Group A includes the world's first racket, Spaniard Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic (Serbia), Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) and American Andy Roddick. The four “B” will include the former leader of the world classification, the Swiss Roger Federer, Andy Murray (Great Britain), the winner of the recent Masters in Paris, Robin Soderling (Sweden) and David Ferrer (Spain). After the single round-robin tournaments in the groups there will be semi-finals, and then a decisive meeting for the title.

The final ATP championships have been held since 1970, and the location of these tennis battles is constantly changing. Most often, the competition was hosted by New York (USA) - from 1977 to 1989. The ATP contract with London is valid for the period 2009-2012, and before that, the tournament was held on the courts of Shanghai (China) for four seasons in a row. Let us remind you that last season a representative of Russia achieved the title for the first time. A year ago, Nikolay Davydenko defeated Argentinean Juan Martin del Potro in the final. In 2008, Nikolai also competed in the decisive match, but then he could not cope with Djokovic.

Prepared by Andrey VDOVIN and Ilya TRISVIATSKY