Sports News

Turning to sport now and news that yet another of the Czech Euro 2000 squad has moved on to pastures new. Radek Bejbl - who spent most of last season on the bench at Atletico Madrid - has left the Spanish club to join the French first-division side Lens. The 27-year-old is an ideal replacement for the Ghanian international Alex Nyarko, who was transfered to the English team Everton on Friday for 4.5m pounds.

"I'm glad it's all over," he said, "I can now be sure of my future. I was told I would be playing in midfield."

Bejbl moved to Spain from Slavia Prague in 1996, and after Atletico were relegated from the Primera Liga at the end of last season, he attracted interest from a whole host of clubs, including Sunderland, Borussia Dortmund and Auxerre.

Staying with football, and Chmel Blsany's dream of competing in the UEFA Cup came a lot closer at the weekend, when the tiny village team from West Bohemia thrashed their visitors Kalmata of Greece by 5 goals to nil in the third round, first leg of the Intertoto Cup. Goals from Drobny, Gedeon, Kouzentis and a couple from Hogen doing the damage, and the result means that - barring pigs flying over Prague - Blsany should make the semi-finals.

Decent results as well for the other two Czech teams in the competition. Zdrahal equalised nine minutes from time to earn Sigma Olomouc a valuable 1-1 draw against Slaven Belupo in Croatia. And in surely the most daunting encounter of the round for a Czech team, Marila Pribram held the English Premier League giants Aston Villa to a credible goalless draw. Pribram even had their chances to win the match although avoiding a thrashing may be the best they can hope for in the second leg in England this coming weekend.

On to tennis and one of the game's all-time greats - Martina Navratilova - has been inducted into the Hall of Fame in Rhode Island, USA. The Czech-born star, who came out of retirement to compete in the doubles tournaments at this Wimbledon, was inducted alongside the former US Open singles champ Mal Anderson and the former non-playing captain of the US Davis Cup team, Robert Kelleher. As usual, though, Martina downplayed her career achievements, declaring "winning is great... losing is not often fun... but the bottom line is enjoying the game."

Try telling that to Venus and Serena.