Sport | Topic Archive

Back home in Canada, popular mythology holds that hockey brings people together. Tim Hortons, a ubiquitous chain of coffee shops and a virtual Canadian icon, was probably the first to popularize this message in countless television commercials showing wives and husbands, fathers and sons bonding around the rink over large double-doubles. After all, hockey is our number one national pastime.

In Sports News: the Czech ice hockey team have secured a place in the last eight at the World Championships after an impressive win over Canada; the last weekend of the Czech football league is mired in controversy, as Mlada Boleslav reach the Champions League and Plzen narrowly avoid relegation; Karel Bruckner announces the Czech squad for the World Cup; Robin Vik wins tennis's Prague Open; and Kenyan-born runner Hasan Mubarak Shami wins the Prague Marathon.

After more than 20 years away from competitive play in Prague, Martina Navratilova has won her opening doubles match at the Prague Open. Navratilova and Barbora Strycova defeated Olga Blahotova and Ahsha Rolle 6:2, 6:3 in just over one hour of play.

Sparta Prague emerge victorious from the ice hockey Extraliga title playoff series against local rivals Slavia; Devils' Patrik Elias is on form as injury threatens Jagr's part in the playoffs; Petr Cech misses out on English Premiership team of the year 2006; Skacel up for Scottish football award; Jankulovski makes his mark in Milan; Tomas Enge to race in the Indy Japan 300. All this in this week's sport roundup.

Slavia edges Sparta 3:2 to keep ice hockey championship hopes alive; in the NHL Ottawa's Dominik Hasek remains uncertain to start in Stanley Cup playoffs. In football, Liberec edge closer to the league title with a 1:1 tie against Plzen; Chelsea keeper Petr Cech suffers minor injury as Chelsea down Everton; Aston Villa striker Milan Baros twice finds the back of the net in Birmingham derby. In basketball, Prostejov bounce Usti nad Labem 128:70.

As you may know, the two major sports in the Czech Republic are football and ice hockey. You also may be aware that Sparta and Slavia are the two biggest clubs in Prague in both of these sports. This past weekend, the clubs squared off in both sports, and Radio Prague's Yon Pulkrabek was there and now brings us this report.

In Sports News: away from the Prague derbies, the Czech Republic's tennis players easily beat Morocco to reach the playoffs for the Davis Cup world group; ice hockey star Jaromir Jagr sets a new record for his club, after previously admitting a goal attributed to him was scored by a team-mate; and swimmer Kvetoslav Svoboda makes an impressive return after injury.

Victory in the European women's basketball Final Four for Czech team Brno. Tomas Enge brings home Czech colors in first place at the final A1 Grand Prix event, Slavia puts Ceske Budejovice on the brink of elimination and the weekend's football all in this week's sports news.

Long distance swimmer Yvetta Hlavacova who set a new Czech record for swimming the English channel in 8 hours and 42 minutes last year has big plans for the future - she wants to swim there and back, challenging the twenty three year old record set by Dutch swimmer Irene Vanderlan who covered the 66 kilometre distance in 18 hours and 15 minutes. Even if she fails to break that record it would be a huge achievement - Hlavacova would become the third European woman to have swum across the channel there and back.

In Sports News: Lukas Pesek becomes the first Czech to reach the podium in a motorcycling Grand Prix for 35 long years, while Jan Kopecky equals the best ever result for a Czech in the World Rally Championship; speed skater Martina Sablikova sets her first senior world record; Liberec edge ever closer to winning the Czech football league; Tomas Rosicky shines for Dortmund; it's semi-finals time in the Czech ice hockey league; and Radek Stepanek reaches the fourth round in Miami.