Sports News

In Sports News this week: Zdeněk Štybar finishes second in the Cyclo-cross World Championships in Italy; Milan Baroš is hoping a move to Portsmouth will mean regular first-team action ahead of football’s European Championship; Athens silver medallist in yachting Lenka Šmídová this week has one last chance to reach the Beijing Olympics; and the Czech Republic’s lady’s tennis team are preparing to face Slovakia in the Fed Cup in Brno.

Silver for Štybar in first senior Cyclo-cross World Championships

Zdeněk Štybar, photo: CTK

The Czech cyclist Zdeněk Štybar finished second in the Cyclo-cross World Championships in Treviso, Italy on Sunday. Štybar, who is 22, has twice been Under 23 world champion and was competing in his first championships in the senior elite category in the sport, which involves cycling on often rough terrain and carrying your bike over obstacles. Still, the young Czech wasn’t celebrating winning silver – rather Štybar was ruminating on where it had gone wrong in his fight to beat winner Lars Boom of Sweden to the finish line:

“Unfortunately I didn’t manage to keep up with Lars when he attacked at the end…I tried in the last three or four laps but it didn’t work out. I thought I’d see if my legs were up to it, but I wasn’t able to break away. When Lars made his break I was in the middle of a group and I didn’t manage to go with him.”

Zdeněk Štybar wasn’t the only Czech to make a good impression in Treviso – Radomír Šimůnek came fifth.

Baroš has big week ahead after loan move to Portsmouth

Milan Baroš, photo: CTK

Czech footballer Milan Baroš has, as expected, joined the English Premier League club Portsmouth from Lyon on a six-month loan deal. The move came a year and a week after the striker left Aston Villa for the French champions, with whom he was not a regular starter. Baroš, who is 26, says he hopes regular action for Pompey will prove beneficial ahead of next summer’s European Championships in Switzerland and Austria. And the forward can look forward to quite a week: he is likely to start against Manchester United on Wednesday and Chelsea on Saturday.

Last chance saloon for Šmídová’s Olympic hopes

It will also be a big week for some of the Czech Republic’s leading sports women. Lenka Šmídová took silver in yachting at the Olympics in Athens, but is now fighting to even qualify for the Beijing games. In fact, Šmídová and her new partner Lenka Mrzílková this week have their last chance to reach Beijing at the World Championships in Melbourne, where there are five Olympic places up for grabs.

Czech women preparing for Fed Cup clash with Slovakia in Brno

Meanwhile, a Czech women’s tennis team featuring Nicole Vaidišová, Lucie Šafářová, Květa Peschke and Petra Cetkovská will take on their former federal sisters Slovakia in Brno in the Fed Cup’s World Group II next weekend.