Russia beat Finland 79-60 at the European championship on Thursday and dedicated their victory to the victims of Wednesday’s air plane crash, which killed 43 people and wiped out almost an entire ice hockey team.
Most of the victims were players and officials of Russian team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, who were flying to a Continental Hockey League (KHL) match in Minsk.
“We dedicate this victory to their memory and we mourn with the whole country,” Russia’s power forward Semen Antonov told a news conference.
Photo: AFP
On the court, Russia booked a quarter-final berth with two games to spare after an effervescent performance by several players stretched their perfect record to six wins.
Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko led Russia with 14 points and four rebounds as the 2007 European champions blew away the Finns with a tough defense which produced an avalanche of fast breaks and easy points.
Aleksey Shved scored 12 points, while Andrey Vorontsevich and Timofey Mozgov added 11 each for the Russians, who entertained the fans to several spectacular alley-hoops and slam dunks.
Macedonia also booked a last-eight spot with a dramatic 65-63 win over Georgia to put the icing on the cake of celebrations in Skopje marking the 20th anniversary of the former Yugoslav republic’s independence.
Playing in only their third major event as an independent nation, the tournament’s surprise packages Macedonia earned their fifth straight win thanks to another magnificent performance by American-born point guard Lester Bo McCalebb.
The playmaker, who has shone throughout the tournament, scored a game-high 27 points, including a game-winning basket when he tore through a packed Georgian defense with a crossover drive which left his markers bedazzled.
Greece, the 2005 winners, revived their hopes of reaching the last eight after beating Slovenia 69-60 in a see-saw battle.
With both teams playing in fits and starts, Greece point guard Nikolaos Zisis swung the contest with a pair of three-pointers in the final minute, finishing with a game-high 19 points.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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