Sports News

In Sports, success in Scandinavia this weekend as ski jumper Jakub Janda returns to form in Finland while cross country skier Stanislav Rezac scores well at the Vasaloppet marathon in Sweden. The Czech ice hockey Elite League regular season moves into its final round, while Slovan Liberec extends its lead in the Czech soccer league and Jaromir Jagr reaches another milestone.

Janda returns to form

Jakub Janda, photo: CTK

Czech ski jumper Jakub Janda, who leads the World Cup standings, saw a return to form at the weekend, finishing second at the World Cup event in Lahti, Finland. Janda was competing for the first time since his disappointing showing at the Olympics where he finished out of the medals in both individual events. He led the competition after the first round, but was passed by hometown jumper Janne Happonen in the second. The second place finish means that Janda extends his lead in the season's overall standings to 112 points over Janne Ahonen, who managed only a disappointing twentieth place. Although he lost out on the victory, Janda was very satisfied with his performance:

"I'm not disappointed at all. I'm happy with my second place finish because I was out of form for some time now. And my coach and I started to work on something I thought I had mastered, but hadn't. We focused on it and already in the qualification I saw that things were going well. I waited to see how it would go and it went well."

Rezac fourth at the Vasaloppet

Marathon cross-country skier Stanislav Rezac finished fourth at the Vasaloppet in Sweden on Sunday. This was only one position behind his best finish on the podium in 2003. Rezac managed to keep with the lead group of four skiers over the ninety kilometre course, but didn't have the strength in the final sprint to the line. Sweden's Daniel Tynall finished ahead of countryman Jerry Ahrlin and Norwegian legend Anders Aukland to take the win.

Liberec extends its lead in soccer league

Slovan Liberec - Slovacko, photo: CTK

In the weekend's Czech football First Division, Slovan Liberec was able to open up a seven point lead on second-place Teplice and eight points on third-place Slavia Prague after the two contenders managed only to eek out draws at home to inferior competition. Liberec took home full points from Slovacko with a 2-1 win on Sunday after scoring in the second minute of injury time.

Two spots left in hockey league playoffs

Photo: CTK

The Czech ice hockey Extraliga moves into its final round with three teams jostling for the final two playoff spots. Newly promoted Ceske Budejovice assured itself a place in the eight-team playoffs after defeating Vsetin at the weekend. Last year's champion Pardubice is on the outside looking in right now, three points behind Sparta and two behind Trinec, which currently hold the last two sports. All that can change on Thursday when the three competitors all host teams assured a playoff spot.

Jagr becomes all-time leading scorer among Europeans in the NHL

Finally, Czech hockey winger Jaromir Jagr passed another milestone last week with a three-point performance against the Philadelphia Flyers. The New York Rangers star netted two goals and added an assist to pass Finland's Jarri Kurri as the all-time leading scorer among Europeans in the NHL. Jagr now stands at an even 1,400 points, good enough for 17th on the all-time list.