In this week's Sports News: the Czech Ice Hockey team celebrates its first win of the season; Zuzana Hejnová has won the Czech Athlete of the Year Award; tennis star Tomáš Berdych slips to 6th place in the men's world rankings; and Petr Čech helps Arsenal secure a point in a match against Tottenham
Czechs beat Russia in Karjala Tournament match
Czech Republic - Russia, photo: CTK
The Czech Republic’s ice hockey team managed to secure their first win of the season with a 4-3 victory over Russia in Helsinki on Sunday, part of the 2015 Karjala Tournament. Four teams – the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland and Russia – took part in the four day, six match tournament. The Czech Republic lost its first two matches, going down 2-6 to Sweden and 1-2 to Finland. The team, under new manager Vladimír Vůjtek, and captained by the 28-year-old Avangard Omsk player Vladimír Sobotka, was forced into a penalty shootout after the match against Russia ended in a 3-3 draw after extra time. The winning penalty came by way of 25-year-old Jan Kovář. However, despite the win, the Czech Republic still came out at the bottom of the table of the four contenders, with two points; Russia was in third place with four points, while Sweden and Finland both secured six points.
Speaking to Czech Radio, trainer Vladimír Vůjtek said the team continued to improve throughout the tournament:
“Half of them were playing for the first time in this team. But we continued to improve with each match, and the boys increasingly understood the tactics we want to use, made fewer mistakes, and today I think we played very well.”
Zuzana Hejnová wins Czech Athlete of the Year award
Zuzana Hejnová, photo: CTK
Athlete Zuzana Hejnová, who won the Czech Republic’s sole gold medal – for the 400 metre hurdle race – at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing back in August, has been named Czech Athlete of the Year by the Czech Athletic Association. Hejnová won the same award back in 2013 following a gold medal-winning 400m run at the World Championships in Moscow. The athlete managed to take a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. The award has now gone to a woman for nine years in a row, with javelin thrower Barbora Špotáková having taken the top spot for seven of these years.
Tomáš Berdych slips in world rankings
Tomáš Berdych, photo: CTK
Czech tennis star Tomáš Berdych has slipped down by one place in the newest world rankings. Berdych, who previously occupied 5th place in the ATP table, is now at 6th place with 4,620 points for the season. He’s the only Czech player in the men’s top 20. Serbian Novak Djokovic dominates at number 1 with 15,285 points. Djokovic beat Berdych on Friday 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8) in a hard-fought quarter final, later going on to win the competition with a victory over Brit Andy Murray. Berdych, who has never won a Grand Slam title, was a runner-up at Wimbledon in 2010, losing to Spain’s Rafael Nadal.
Meanwhile, women’s top tennis player Petra Kvítová remains in sixth place in the WTA rankings, down from her lifetime high of number 2 in 2011. Kvítová lost out to Pole Agnieszka Radwańska at the recent 2015 WTA Finals in Singapore. The Czech player is joined in the women’s top 20 by Lucie Šafářová in 8th place, and Karolína Plíšková in 11th, up from the previous 13th.
Čech helps Gunners secure 1-1 draw against Tottenham
Petr Čech, photo: CTK
Petr Čech, described not long ago by Arsene Wenger, his manager at football club Arsenal, as the “perfect goalkeeper”, has prevented his team from going down in defeat against Tottenham. In Sunday’s Premiere League match at Arsenal’s home Emirates Stadium in London, the 33-year-old Čech prevented two second-half attempts at goal by Christian Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld after conceding a goal to Harry Kane during the first 45 minutes. Kieran Gibbs’ 77th minute equalizer then enables the Gunners to take home a point from the match.
This article has been corrected from an earlier version.
