Sports News

Viktoria Zizkov have caused a big upset in football's UEFA Cup with a 2:0 first-leg win over Scottish league leaders Glasgow Rangers, and while football and ice hockey players are getting back into action, athletes are hanging up their spikes for the winter; hurdler Jiri Muzik reflects on a successful season. That's in Sports News.

Sports News

Hurdler Jiri Muzik reflects on a successful season

Athletes Muzik, Formanova and Sebrle, Photo:CTK

While football and ice hockey players have recently been getting back into action after the summer break, the athletics season is now drawing to a close, and the Czech Republic's athletes are now looking forward to hanging up their spikes for a few months. Hurdler Jiri Muzik, who is 25, won his first major medal this year, a silver in the 400 metres hurdles at the European Championships in Munich. No prizes then for guessing what was the high point of Jiri Muzik's season.

"The highlight of my season was my first medal, from the European Championships, so I'm happy."

How was it for you after so many years of training to finally win a medal?

"It was great when I was there. Before that time I saw it only on TV, and (in Munich) I took part in it there, so it was a great time."

What are your ambitions now? Are you already looking forward to next season?

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to next season but now I've finished this season, so I need a holiday and I need some rest. In one month or two months I will start again and prepare for next season."

You've just come back from a competition in Japan; how was that experience?

"That was a great experience. I was there for the second time and I had several friends from Japan and when I finished my season, it was my last race. I visited my friends in some pub there and I enjoyed it, it was great."

Viktoria Zizkov cause UEFA Cup upset with 2:0 win over Glasgow Rangers

Of the four Czech teams in the UEFA Cup, Viktoria Zizkov had the toughest draw, Scottish league leaders Glasgow Rangers, and they may have surprised even themselves when they put two in the Rangers net without reply in the first, home leg on Tuesday evening. Ales Pikl's sixth-minute header from a free by Ludek Straceny got the Prague side off to a good start, and when Rangers got a penalty just before half-time, Zizkov keeper Pavel Kucera dived the right way and caught the ball. Twenty minutes later, Straceny was put through by a pass from Antonin Mlejnsky which he made the most of, with a shot that left the Rangers keeper grabbing at air.

Pavel Kucera:"I think they came here with their noses in the air, and they were punished for it."

Ludek Straceny: "We played brilliantly. I took the free from which we got our first goal, which went perfectly, and then I got the second goal. It couldn't have been more satisfying."

The second leg takes place at Glasgow's Ibrox stadium in two weeks time, and that really will be a lion's den-like experience for Viktoria Zizkov.

80th anniversary of births of legendary runner Emil Zatopek and wife Dana Zatopkova

Dana Zatopkova, Photo:CTK

It was 80 years ago - September 19, 1922 - that legendary Czech long-distance runner Emil Zatopek and his wife Dana were born. Emil Zatopek, who died at the end of 2000, is the only long-distance athlete to have won three gold medals at one Olympics, a feat he achieved in Helsinki in 1952. Dana Zatopkova, who took the gold in the javelin at the same Olympics, is celebrating her 80th birthday today, and remains one of the most respected figures in the world of Czech sport.