Germany clinched the last place in the 12-nation line-up at the Olympic Games men’s basketball tournament on Sunday with a 96-82 win over Puerto Rico.
Greece and Croatia had qualified on Saturday and, with Germany, will join Angola, Argentina, Australia, hosts China, Iran, Lithuania, Russia, Spain and the US in the Beijing tournament.
Dirk Nowitzki starred for Germany with 32 points on Sunday to lead his team to a fifth Olympics place, but their first since 1992.
They were also aided by the efforts of 2.13m Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman who, courtesy of his great-grandparents, became a naturalized German citizen at the start of the month.
Despite not speaking a world of German, Kaman played a key role on Sunday, scoring 10 points with 12 rebounds.
“I’ve only been here 12 days, but Dirk has waited 12 years for this to happen,” Kaman said. “I can’t even imagine the emotions that he must be feeling at this moment.”
At the Games in Beijing, the 12 teams will be split into two groups of six.
Group A sees defending champions Argentina alongside Australia, Iran, Lithuania, Russia and Croatia while Angola, China, Spain, the US, Greece and Germany make up Group B. In Beijing, the US will be looking for their first gold medal in the event since Sydney in 2000.
Since that time, their much-vaunted collection of NBA stars have suffered a series of setbacks with a humiliating sixth place at the 2002 world championships in Indianapolis and a third place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The US were also third at the 2006 world championships in Japan.
Defending Olympic champions Argentina, world champions Spain and Greece will also be among the gold medal favorites.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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