Advertisement

Real Madrid win Euroleague as Elshorbagy enjoys British Open triumph

The Euroleague is the most coveted title for basketball clubs across Europe. Real Madrid lost the previous two finals but had another crack at making history when they faced the Greeks of Olympiacos in this season’s showpiece match. The Spaniards didn’t disappoint this time. It was third time lucky for coach Pablo Laso and his men who broke their recent Euroleague hoodoo by lifting a record-extending ninth continental crown. The last time Real Madrid won the title was when they beat the same club back in 1995. Spurred on by the home crowd Madrid took charge of the game in the second quarter and American guard Jaycee Carroll then dominated the third with 11 straight points to help push Los Blancos closer to glory. Madrid outscored Olympiacos by twenty points over the final 14 minutes to eventually claim a 78-59 historic victory. Carroll paced the winners with 16 points while MVP Andres Nocioni chipped in with 12 points as Real exacted sweet revenge for their 2013 final defeat by the Greeks. The ‘Wimbledon of squash’ It’s dubbed the ‘Wimbledon of Squash’. The British Open is the oldest, most established tournament in the game. All the top stars recently gathered in Hull, England hoping to lift one of the most prestigious trophies in the sport.’‘ This year that honour went to world number one Mohamed Elshorbagy. In the final the Egyptian met defending champion Gregory Gaultier of France. Following a fiercely contested match the 24-year-old – coached by six-time champion Jonah Barrington – emerged victorious winning through 3-2 for his maiden British Open crown. The moment it hits you tthat you’re British Open Champion … MoElshorbagy pic.twitter.com/vrPrfvGdY0— British Open Squash (BOSquash) 17 Mai 2015 There was hope of a home success in the women’s final when 2013 champion and world number four Laura Massaro took on French player Camille Serme. However after dispatching five-time winner and world No 1 Nicol David in a marathon match earlier in the day Massaro appeared spent. The talented sixth-ranked Serme took full advantage to storm to a 3-1 victory and the title. “I’m still on Cloud Hull” says CamilleSerme 24 hours after her BOSquash win … http://t.co/YRLTepFesi pic.twitter.com/jwOzxHQY25— British Open Squash (@BOSquash) 19 Mai 2015 Climbing to the summit of the podium Over the past few decades Sport Climbing has steadily grown in popularity and nowadays the calendar is full of high profile competitions. Last weekend the IFSC World Cup series kicked off in Canada with a speed event and it turned out to be an all-Russian women’s podium. Having beaten her own world record in the semi-finals with 7.74 seconds, Iuliia Kaplina was in confident mood in Central Saanich on Vancouver Island and blasted past compatriot Mariia Krasavina for gold. Anna Tsyganova took bronze After two false starts in the men’s final China’s Qixin Zhong comfortably saw off the challenge of Poland’s Marcin Dzienski for top honours. Bassa Mawem of France rounded off the podium with bronze. The next stop on the World Cup circuit is the men’s and women’s bouldering in Toronto later this month. Sports day The International School Sport Federation was founded in 1972. It holds international competitions in different disciplines giving secondary school pupils the chance of a lifetime to shine on various sporting stages across the world. ISF President Laurent Petrynka said: ‘‘The ISF is the International School Sport Federation, we organise the World School championship for all our members. We are at this time 80 countries who are members and we organise multi-sport events. ‘‘We organise the world championships in football, basketball, in athletics and in swimming. We have more than 20 sports all over the world.’‘ Of all its competitions the Gymnasiade is the ISF’s flagship event and was first held in 1974. Petrynka added: ‘‘One of our most biggest event is the Gymnasiade, like a school youth games that gathers more than 5000 pupils coming from all the continents. We have organised it in Qatar, in Brazilia, the next one will be in Turkey in the beautiful city of Trabzon (in 2016). ‘‘We have at this time more than ten sports, we decided to introduce fencing, introduce archery, introduce karate, judo and wrestling. All the sports have their place in the Gymnasiade. So we want that the Gymnasiade becomes one of the most biggest youth event in the world. Among ISF’s other major events is the World Schools Athletics Championships which, this year, will take place at the end of June in Wuhan, central China. En Garde Modern fencing originated in medieval Europe and used to be a means of settling questions of justice or of vindicating a grievance. Historical references date fencing schools back to the 12th century. Today there are three different fencing disciplines – foil, epee and sabre in which men and women compete individually and in teams and is one of only five sports to have featured in every modern Olympic Games.. Individual foil and epee bouts consist of three periods of three minutes or the first to score 15 points. In sabre its the first to 15 – although there is a break when one person reaches 8 points The foil is a thrusting weapon. It must weight less than 500 grams and have a blade 90 cm long. Fencers score by striking the point of the weapon on the defined target area of their opponent, which in foil is limited to the torso only. The epee is the same length as the foil but slightly heavier. It is also a thrusting weapon therefore you can only score by striking with its point. The target area in epee is the entire body, from head to toe including any clothing and equipment. The sabre is a little shorter than the epee and foil but you can use the cutting edge of the blade as well as the tip to strike you opponent and score. The target area is everything above the waist, including the head and both arms. Emotion from Porec This week’s emotion clip (see above) comes from the UIM-ABP Aquabike European continental championship in Porec, Croatia. Some 98 riders from 16 countries took part in the re-launch of this multi-class event. France’s Jeremy Perez won the elite Runabout GP1 class with compatriot Didier Chabert and Christophe Agostinho rounding off the podium. Austria’s Kevin Reiterer won the men’s Ski GP1 while Beatriz Curtinhal beat Sweden’s Jonna Borgstrom and world champion from France Jennifer Menard to claim the women’s title. Round two of the championship takes place in Roses-Girona in Spain starting 19 June.