Sprint Speed Skating Champs; FIBA Basketball World Cup; NHL Players for Sochi?

(ATR) Starting gun goes off Saturday inside Calgary Olympic Oval ... International hoops showpiece gets re-branded ... Putin prioritizes NHL players for Sochi ... More inside this Federations Roundup.

Guardar

Sprint Speed Skating Worlds

Chief organizer Alice Humeny tells Around the Rings this weekend’s sprint speed skating world championships at Calgary’s Olympic Oval are good to go.

"Everyone’s here training. The gun goes [Saturday] at noon. We’re ready for the skaters and teams and the sponsors and the spectators," she says.

"There’s always finishing touches on a Friday, but we’ve been doing this since the preview event in 1987 [for the 1988 Winter Games], so I can tell you, we’re ready."

These world champs will feature 65 skaters from 20 countries racing one 500m and one 1,000m each day with medals to be awarded Sunday for men and women.

"Canada has a very good chance of Christine Nesbitt defending her title," Humeny tells ATR.

"USA, Netherlands and Korea also wouldn’t be huge surprises."

Lee Kyou-Hyuk of South Korea is the reigning two-time men’s champ.

Putin Prioritizes NHL Players for Sochi

Vladimir Putin is lobbying the NHL to release Russian hockey stars for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

"I have asked Minister of Sport [Vitaly Mutko] to hold consultations with our friends and colleagues from Canada," the Russian prime minister was quoted by state news agency RIA Novosti.

"It also has a certain meaning because we have to ensure that our players, who play in the NHL, come to the 2014 Olympic Games, [and] to have the NHL calendar put together accordingly."

He was speaking Wednesday to two-time Olympic ice hockey champion Alexander Yakushev, who led the Soviets in scoring throughout the 1972 Summit Series.

Putin told his countryman he would invite NHL officials to Moscow next month to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the famous eight-game stand, won four to three by Canada with one tie.

"We will come to an agreement with them," Putin said. "We can do it not only for the result but as a show of respect to what you and your friends did for the advancement of hockey."

It’s expected talks for a new collective bargaining agreement in 2012 could decide whether the NHL pauses mid-season to allow professionals to play in the Sochi Winter Games.

FIBA Joins World Cup Craze

It’s out with the old and in with the new for international basketball’s flagship tournament.

Federation leaders unveiled Thursdayin Madrid the FIBA Basketball World Cup, successor to the FIBA World Championship.

"The new name is short and catchy. The term ‘World Cup’ is known by people all over the globe and resonates in different languages: Copa del Mundo, Coppa del Mondo, Coupe du Monde," FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann said at a ceremony in the Spanish capital.

"This new name reflects the prestige that our tournament has as a premier international competition and allows for it to be recognized as what it truly is: one of the biggestglobal sporting events, along with the FIFA World Cup, the Rugby World Cup and the Cricket World Cup."

Thursday’s change coincided with a logo launch for the 2014 edition of the newly named event as well as a formal presentation of the six host cities – Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Seville, Granada and Las Palmasde Gran Canaria.

Written by Matthew Grayson.

20 Years at #1:

Guardar

Últimas Noticias

Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons

Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons

Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024

She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024

Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris

Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris

Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years

The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years

Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”

The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”