Sports News

In Sports News: as the new Czech football season begins Liberec make a great start while Sparta Prague stumble; ex-international Horst Siegl scores his 175th league goal at the age of 37; Czech players make a big impact on the opening weekend of the Scottish season; javelin legend Jan Zelezny may be 40 but he's still in with a chance of a medal at the European Championships; and Prague's Troja is gearing up for the water slalom world championships.

Liberec off to flying start while Sparta's season begins poorly

The Czech football league resumed after the summer break at the weekend. Last season's champions Liberec were quick out of the blocks, winning 2:0 over newly promoted Ceske Budejovice, the latter featuring the most capped Czech player ever, Karel Poborsky.

After an awful 2005-2006 season for Sparta Prague, the country's richest club got off to a poor start this term with a 0:0 draw with Kladno, prompting fresh "Sparta in crisis" headlines. There have already been suggestions that coach Stanislav Griga could be ejected from the hottest seat in Czech football...

But one man who has cause to celebrate is Horst Seigl, who scored his 175th league goal for Most in their 2:2 draw with Jablonec. The former international is now 37 years old.

Meanwhile, Jablonec's coach Petr Rada has been named as new assistant to Karel Bruckner, manager of the Czech national side. Rada replaces Miroslav Beranek in the post.

Czech players make big impact on opening weekend of Scottish Premiership

Czech players made a very big impression on the first weekend of the new season in the Scottish Premier League. Jiri Jarosik scored on his league debut for defending champions Glasgow Celtic, while Libor Sionko did the same for Celtic's big rivals Rangers.

And Roman Bednar and Michal Pospisil were both on the score sheet for last season's runners up Hearts. Their former team-mate Rudolf Skacel, meanwhile, has just signed a four-year deal with Southampton in the English Championship.

Zelezny, 40, aiming for medals at European Championships

Czech javelin legend Jan Zelezny may have turned 40 last month but he is still going strong. Last week he finished second at a meeting in Stockholm with a throw of 85.06m, some way short of his world record of 98.48m but impressive nonetheless. If this fine form continues Zelezny is in with a chance of reaching the podium at the European Championships in Gothenburg next week.

Staying with the javelin, a new Czech women's record was set last week. Barbora Spotakova threw exactly 66m at a meeting in Finland, breaking the previous Czech best by nine centimetres.

Troja gearing up for water slalom world championships

Stepanka Hilgertova
Prague's Troja district on the banks of the River Vltava will be the centre of the canoeing and kayaking world from this coming Thursday: it's the venue for the 2006 Slalom Racing World Championships. Czech fans will be out in numbers cheering the country's best known kayaker, two-time Olympic champion Stepanka Hilgertova. But, perhaps surprisingly, Hilgertova says the best way to watch the championships is on TV.