Sports News

In Sports News: the Czech Republic took three medals at the Olympic Games in Athens on Sunday, as many as they had won in the whole of the first week; a Czech rowing team took silver in the men's coxless quadruple sculls; Lenka Smidova came second in the Europe category to win the country's first ever medal in sailing; Jaroslav Baba, 19, won bronze in the high jump. In other news: Ostrava's Marek Heinz is close to signing with Borussia Monchengladbach, and several Czech footballers made the headlines around Europe.

Sports News

Three medals for Czechs at Olympics on Sunday

Jakub Hanak, David Jirka, Tomas Karas and David Kopriva, photo: CTK

The Czech Republic's Olympic team took a very impressive three medals on Sunday, as many as they had won in the whole of the first week of the Athens Games. The first medal of the day was silver in the men's coxless quadruple sculls, for a Czech team comprising Tomas Karas, Jakub Hanak, David Jirka and David Kopriva. After a poor showing from Czech rowers on Saturday, the four-man team finished less than a second behind Russia in the final, with Ukraine coming third. David Kopriva said he was not unhappy about missing out on gold by such a close margin, but said he might come to regret it in later years. Either way, it was the first Czech rowing medal since the 1992 Olympics, when Vaclav Chalupa took silver.

A few hours later it was the turn of Lenka Smidova to reach the podium, again with silver in the women's Europe sailing category - that was the first ever Olympic medal in sailing for the Czech Republic, which is of course a land-locked country. It is also the biggest success in the career of Smidova, who is 29 and from the town of Havlickuv Brod. She had this to say after the race.

"The title is really beautiful, but it'll take a while before I realise what it actually means. As for the race, everything flowed almost automatically. Of course I'm not going to tell you it wasn't difficult, but the hardest thing was the nerves, and just staying calm mentally."

Vera Pospisilova-Cechlova, photo: CTK

The third Czech medal of the day came not on the water, but from the athletics stadium, where Jaroslav Baba came third in the high jump with a personal best of 2.34 metres. Baba is, at 19, one of the youngest stars of Czech athletics, and is surely a name we'll hear a lot of in the future. He says after the games he will concentrate on his maturita school-leaving exams. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Denisa Scerbova - a junior world champion - turned 18 on Saturday, and is herself due to take part in the long jump at Athens.

So the Czech Republic's medal tally so far is six medals: three silver and three bronze.

Several Czech medal hopefuls going home empty-handed

Among the Czechs who will not be leaving Athens happy is Vera Pospisilova-Cechlova, who finished fourth in the discus on Saturday. Meanwhile, rower Vaclav Chalupa came fifth in the final, as did Ondrej Synek in the two-man event. Miroslava Kapkova came fifth in the women's race. And in the triple-jump former world champion Sarka Kasparkova failed to reach the final.

Dvorak drops out of decathlon after first event

Tomas Dvorak, photo: CTK

Bad news from the decathlon - Tomas Dvorak, who has been crowned world champion three times, has pulled out after the first event, the 100 metres, in which he recorded a time of 11.53 seconds. He has been suffering from problems with his Achilles tendon for some time, but still thought he'd give it a go at Athens.

Heinz set for Monchengladbach move

Marek Heinz, (on the left), photo: CTK

Marek Heinz, who impressed a lot of people at football's Euro 2004, was left out of the Banik Ostrava team which beat Ceske Budejovice 2:0 on Saturday; Heinz is reportedly about to join Borussia Monchengladbach, home to fellow Czechs Vaclav Sverkos, Ivo Ulich and Martin Fukal. The player had previously said he would not be prepared to return to the Bundesliga, where he spent three unproductive years with Hamburg. On the other hand, the transfer would not come as a surprise after Banik lost all chance of qualifying for the Champions League, losing 5:0 away to Leverkusen in the first leg.

Sparta hoping to overturn deficit in Champions Leagues qualifier

Sparta Prague, meanwhile, are still in with a chance of reaching the lucrative competition - on Wednesday they go into the second leg against Ferencvaros trailing 1:0 from the first leg in Budapest. The Czech league leaders impressed on Friday, in a 5:1 demolition of Opava at Letna. Three of Sparta's goals came from summer signing Milan Pacanda, who has bagged a very impressive six goals in six games.

Czech players among the goals around Europe

As for the Czech "legionnaires" in other European leagues, Milan Baros scored his first goal for Liverpool for some time on Saturday, while Patrik Berger got on the score sheet for Portsmouth with a stunning strike. Former Sparta nearly man Marek Kincl is evidently enjoying life in Austria - he scored his fifth goal for Rapid Vienna, and is the league's top scorer. Petr Cech kept another clean sheet for Chelsea.

100,000 spectators for Czech MotoGP Grand Prix in Brno

Sete Gibernau and Valentino Rossi, photo: CTK

Around 100,000 spectators attended the Czech MotoGP Grand Prix in Brno at the weekend. The motorcycling event was won by Sete Gibernau, followed by the Italian duo of Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi. World champion Rossi, who remains 17 points clear in the overall standings, said the race was good and the fight with Gibernau "hard and fun".