Sports News
May 9, 2008Here are the sports results from Friday:
QUEBEC - Vitali Koval is an unknown no more at the IIHF World Hockey Championship.
The Belarusian netminder shed the "little-known" tag with a 52-save performance in which he nearly carried his upstart Belarus team to victory over a heavily favoured Russian squad before narrowly losing 4-3 in a shootout on Friday.
HALIFAX - The year was 1999 and Dany Heatley had a decision to make.
He wasn't invited to the evaluation camp for Canada's world junior team when the German federation called and tried to convince him to join their program instead. "We asked the question years ago when Dany wasn't at the U-20," German GM Franz Reindl said Friday. "He was not selected. We talked. We tried. We negotiated.
PITTSBURGH - Daniel Briere is making May hockey a habit. But what he'd really like is to finally play a series in June.
The Philadelphia Flyers centre is playing in the NHL's Eastern Conference final for a third straight season. This time, he's looking for a different ending after being on the losing end with the Buffalo Sabres in 2005-06 and '06-07. Several days from now, he's hoping to be shaking the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins with a smile on his face.
Canadian international Paul Stalteri has been at the top of the table during his time in Germany with Werder Bremen. Now the veteran fullback is looking to help Fulham from sliding out of the English Premiership.
Fulham (33 points), Reading (33) and Birmingham (32) are all battling to avoid going down. Two of the three will join already relegated Derby (11 points) in the drop after the final round of games Sunday.
INDIANAPOLIS - Rookie driver Alex Lloyd did not break any bones in a hard crash during practice for the Indianapolis 500 that left him hospitalized.
Lloyd was taken off the track Friday complaining of neck pain. Though a CT scan showed no broken bones, he was kept at the hospital as a precaution.
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Nothing seems to slow down Felipe Massa in Turkey.
Two-time defending champion Massa led Ferrari's sweep of practice sessions for the Turkish Grand Prix on Friday as drivers struggled with technical problems in the deteriorating weather.
ROME - First it was Rafael Nadal. Then came Roger Federer's turn.
The two players that have dominated tennis for the last three years were both upset over three days at the Rome Masters. Federer lost his sixth match of the year Friday, falling to 27th-ranked Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) in the quarter-finals.
BERLIN - Dinara Safina ended Serena Williams's 17-match winning streak with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory on Friday to reach the German Open semifinals.
The 17th-ranked Russian kept pressuring Williams' backhand, the same tactic that worked a day earlier in an upset of top-ranked Justine Henin of Belgium.
BALTIMORE - Big Brown has not scared off all the 3-year-old horses with his overpowering victory in the Kentucky Derby.
The probable field for next Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico grew to 13 on Friday, with only fifth-place Derby finisher Recapturetheglory taking another shot at the unbeaten colt trained by Rick Dutrow Jr.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - It will be at least two more weeks before additional information is known about what caused the filly Eight Belles to break down in the Kentucky Derby.
A lab at the University of Kentucky has begun to examine the body of the horse that was euthanized following her runner-up finish in the Derby. But the filly's owner, Rick Porter, says researchers have only told him that both of the front ankles were broken.
DOHA, Qatar - It took less than 90 minutes for Allyson Felix to become the year's fastest woman in both the 100 and 400 metres.
The American ran inside 11 seconds for the first time and set a personal best of 10.93 seconds in the 100 at the Doha Super Grand Prix. She was soon back on the track, and outran all opponents with the same easy stride to take the 400 in 49.83, the first time a woman broke the 50-second mark this season.
Samuel Peter will defend his WBC heavyweight title in the fall against former champion Vitali Klitschko after the fighters' camps finally reached a financial agreement for the long-awaited fight.
Dino Duva, Peter's promoter, and Klitschko adviser Shelly Finkel reached the deal in Mexico City on Thursday, just hours before the fight was scheduled to go to a purse bid, in which any promoter could have paid for the right to stage the WBC-mandated bout.
MILAN, Italy - The recent domination of the Giro d'Italia by cyclists from the host nation could be about to change as an especially strong field gets set to begin the 2008 edition Saturday.
Non-Italians at the starting line in Palermo with hopes of arriving first in Milan after the 21-stage race include last year's Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, his teammate Andreas Kloden and Russia's Denis Menchov, who won the 2007 Spanish Vuelta.
MIAMI - Keith Morgan and Marylise Levesque are going to the Olympic Games in Beijing after winning medals at the Pan American judo championships.
Morgan, of Calgary, booked his ticket simply by participating in the Olympic qualifying event. He still took gold in the men's 100-kilo division by defeating Eduardo Costa of Argentina in Thursday's final.
DETROIT - The memory of their demise in the NHL's Western Conference final a year ago continues to spur the Detroit Red Wings on to greater things this spring.
"We've got a group that wants to win bad and we're determined," says coach Mike Babcock. "We've been here before and never got the job done.
LONDON - Zara Phillips, a granddaughter Queen Elizabeth, will compete for Britain in equestrian at the Beijing Olympics.
The 26-year-old Phillips was among five riders named to the equestrian eventing team Friday by the British Olympic Association.
HALIFAX - Any team looking to beat Canada at the IIHF World Hockey Championship should study tape of this game.
Norway entered as a heavy underdog against the unbeaten hosts but found itself with a chance for an upset after clogging the neutral zone and playing a tight-checking game. It wasn't pretty but it kept the Canadians at bay until Rick Nash made an incredible solo effort late to pull out the win.
