Sports News

Slavia Prague win the Czech football cup leaving Sparta without a trophy this season. Sparta try to stop the rot by signing coach Jarabinsky and Czech international Poborsky. Dosek twins make squad for Italy friendly. Ice hockey coach Augusta's days are evidently numbered and tennis players Novak and Chladkova win. Sports News has all those stories and more.

Sports News

Slavia win cup, leaving Sparta without a trophy this season

Tomas Dosek (left) and Karel Pitak from Slavia Prague, photo: CTK

Slavia Prague have won the Czech cup with a 2:1 victory over their city rivals Sparta on Monday evening. Slavia, who came fifth in the league, opened the scoring after just two minutes, with a goal from Tomas Dosek. Dosek added another a quarter of an hour later, with Sparta captain Jiri Novotny getting his side's only goal of the game soon afterwards. Sparta therefore ended the season without a trophy, something Novotny - who has been at the club for 15 years - said he never remembered happening before. Sparta's fans were far from impressed, and hurled abuse at their team throughout the game.

The club have taken steps to stop the rot, beginning with the signing of no-nonsense Slovak Jozef Jarabinsky as manager. He has been Sparta coach before and also played for the club. And Sparta have - as expected - signed Czech international Karel Poborsky, who has previously played at Manchester United, Portugal's Benfica and the Rome club Lazio. Former Czech captain Jiri Nemec is also considering joining Sparta. Nemec, who was 36 on Wednesday, has just won the German cup with Schalke, and says he won't decide until after he talks to Jarabinsky.

Nedved out for Italy game, Dosek twins make the squad

It has been confirmed that Pavel Nedved will not be available for the Czech Republic's friendly against World Cup hopefuls Italy in Prague on Saturday. Nedved has been suffering from bad headaches for some weeks. Tomas Dosek, gets his first call up after his brace in the Czech cup final, while his twin brother Lukas is also in the squad.

Under 21s face France in opening game at European Championships

The Czech Under 21s have left for Switzerland for the Under 21 European Championships. The Czechs will play in the opening game against favourites France on Thursday evening. Coach Miroslav Beranek - whose also manages Slavia - says the team's main aim will be to qualify from their group, which also includes Belgium and Greece.

Augusta's days as ice hockey coach reportedly numbered

After quarter-finals exits for the Czech Republic's ice hockey team this year in both the Olympics and the world championships in Sweden, it has been reported that the Czech ice hockey union are preparing to sack coach Josef Augusta. The two favourites for the job are Slavomir Lener and Alois Hadamczik, and there has even been speculation that the two might share the job. More will be known after the Czech hockey union meets on Friday.

Tennis news

The leading Czech tennis player Jiri Novak has set up an encounter with world number one Lleyton Hewitt at the Hamburg Masters. Novak, who is seeded 14th became the first player through to the third round when he blasted his way past Spain's Felix Mantilla 6-2 6-0. In the doubles Novak and Radek Stepanek beat the German pair of Burgsmueller and Knippschild. Bohdan Ulihrach is out of the competition however, after losing 6:3 6:2 to Roger Federer of Switzerland. In women's tennis Denisa Chladkova beat Spain's Conchita Martinez 6-4 4-6 7-5 to go through to the third round of the Italian Open, where she will face Serena Williams.

Dvorak disappoints fans by pulling out of Ostrava Golden Spike

Bad news for Czech athletics fans - decathlete Tomas Dvorak has announced that he will not be taking part in one of the major events of the athletics calendar here in the Czech Republic, next month's Golden Spike meeting in the north Moravian city of Ostrava. The three-times world champion says the event takes place too soon before the first important decathlon of the season at Ratingen in Germany.