Shivendra's ban reduced to two matches

Published>Tue, Mar 02 10 11:59 AM

FIH's three-member panel has reduced Indian hockey player Shivendra Singh's ban to two days. Shivendra will now miss matches against Australia and Spain.

India's Hockey World Cup campaign had received a setback Monday with centre forward Shivendra Singh being slapped a three-match suspension for 'deliberately hitting' Pakistan's Fareed Ahmed during the match.

"Shivendra's absence won't hurt our chances as we have enough backing', said FIH secretary general.

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Hockey gold brings more than bragging rights

Published>Tue, Mar 02 10 10:12 AM

It's time for Canadians to gloat and Americans to pay up on an Olympic men's hockey final that was made to order for friendly betting and good-natured banter on both sides of the border.

After Canada's exciting overtime 3-2 victory on Sunday, American fans are not only nursing their wounded pride. Many of them are also settling the score by sending cases of beer to colleagues, or donning Canadian hockey jerseys at work.

"If a friend of mine is keeping up his end of the bet, he should be wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey to work today, which is embarrassing on several fronts," Conor Bill, managing director at Mt. Auburn Capital, in Toronto, said of his cross-border wager with a friend at a New York-based brokerage.

The Leafs, one of the weakest teams in the National Hockey League and an organization with a history of failure, are a running joke in hockey-crazed Toronto.

But if the table had been turned, Sunday's final could have proved nearly unbearable for Bill, a long-time hockey fan.

"If (Canada) lost he was going to make me wear a Team USA shirt, and the worst part of it was that I would have to go out and buy it. I would have actually had to pay for it!" said Bill.

U.S. fans may be forgiven for a false sense of confidence. Their team had a relatively easy road to the final, including an upset victory over Canada earlier in the Games. But Sidney Crosby's clinching goal for Canada in overtime is forcing them to pay up and shut up.

Americans working for Canadian firms in the United States were reminded of the outcome on Monday.

"If we had to lose to someone, I'm glad we did it to the Canadians. ... It was almost like losing a game to a brother," said Andy Busch, chief forex strategist for Canada's BMO Capital Markets in Chicago.

"Obviously we had some Canadians at the desks here this morning displaying a certain pride, with 'friendly' reminders of their superiority in the game. But overall, everybody's being a good sport about it. It was all great fun."

Even Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama got into the spirit.

The only problem was that they messed up the terms of their bet, with both offices issuing media statements that the winner had to buy the beer rather than the loser.

In the end, both agreed that the loser would buy, so Obama owes Harper a case of Molson Canadian. Had the Americans won, Harper would have had to buy Obama a case of Pennsylvanian-made Yuengling beer.

Canadians will also be watching U.S. news channels closely as White House press secretary Robert Gibbs must a wear Team Canada jersey during his daily on-camera briefing after losing a bet with his Canadian counterpart.

But proving that Canadians are gracious in victory, David MacDougall, a director at Toronto-based investment firm MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier in Toronto, will send a three-litre bottle of Molson Canadian to his sister in Montana for her birthday as a quiet reminder of who claimed hockey supremacy.

Pressurized bottles of the same brew were cracked open by Canadian gold medal winners at the Games.

"It's a great rivalry, but I have to be careful not to gloat because that always comes back to haunt you," said MacDougall. "How do you do it with some kind of style?"

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Formula 1: Good outing for Force India

Published>Sat, Feb 27 10 03:46 PM

Barcelona, Feb 27 (IANS) Force India enjoyed another good outing on the second day of the pre-season Formula One test as Vitantonio Liuzzi turned in the fourth fastest lap of the day in 1 minute 21.056 seconds.

The team's preparation for the start of the 2010 Championship continued as Liuzzi worked through an intensive programme that included a full race distance, completing 90 laps.

After completing shorter runs in the morning, Liuzzi started a race simulation after the lunchtime break. Aside from a red flag period shortly after his second stop for tyres, the VJM03 performed reliably throughout Friday.

Liuzzi said: 'We can be quite happy about today's programme. We completed everything without any issues and the car showed very good reliability, even when we did the race simulation. Again, it is responding very well and we are improving day by day so everything is looking positive.

'We still don't know where we are relative to the others, and we will only see in Bahrain, but overall we can be really happy. We now have two more days of testing to try and get as much information as possible.'

Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) was the quickest in 1:20.614 (99 laps), ahead of former double World champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari (1:20.637, 134 laps) and Pedro de la Rosa of Sauber-Ferrari (1:20.973, 114 laps) while seven times champion Michael Schumacher (Mercedes GP) was seventh with a 1:21.689 (85 laps).

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Schumacher admits his car is too slow to win Bahrain grand prix

Published>Sat, Feb 27 10 03:40 PM

London, Feb 27 (ANI): Seven times Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has admitted that his car is too slow to win the first grand prix of the season in Bahrain.

The Mercedes GP star ended pre-season testing in just over a second behind Williams rookie Nico Hulkenberg, who was the quickest.

Schumacher said: "We're not perfectly in the position we would like to be, probably to be competing to win the first races straight away."

The seven-time world champion believes Mercedes GP's objective will be to compete with the top teams.

"It is very difficult to judge what the real picture is right now," The Sun quoted Schumacher, as saying.

Hulkenberg set the pace in Barcelona with a best lap of 1min 20.614secs.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was two-hundreths of a second behind in good conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Pedro De la Rosa of Sauber was just over three-tenths back in third, ahead of Tonio Liuzzi of Force India and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton finished a place behind Schumacher in eighth. (ANI)

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Emergency shipments of condoms as Winter Games athletes ditch no sex before a game

Published>Sat, Feb 27 10 03:36 PM

Melbourne, Feb 27 (ANI): Emergency shipments of condoms are being sent to the Olympic Villages, after the Winter Games athletes ditched the theory of no sex before a game.

An "emergency airlift" of 8500 condoms is on the way to the Olympic Villages in Vancouver and Whistler for the athletes.

The first shipment of 100,000 or 14 condoms per visiting athlete was provided by the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research apparently wasn't enough, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Foundation executive director Kerry Whiteside told The Kingston Whig Standard: "When we heard about the condom shortage in Vancouver, we felt it important to respond immediately. Safer sex is key to preventing the spread of the HIV virus."

Canadian Olympic team mentor Marnie McBean said athletes were stuffing their pockets with prophylactics to keep as souvenirs from the games.

The demand for condoms at the Vancouver Games is in stark contrast to Beijing. Last fall, a collector auctioned 5000 condoms that were left over from the 2008 Summer Games.

Free condoms have been distributed at the Olympics since the 1992 games in Barcelona. (ANI)

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Lankan media joins chorus of appreciation for Tendulkar

Published Sat, Feb 27 10 03:06 PM

Colombo, Feb 27 (PTI) Much like their counterparts in other cricket-playing nations, the Sri Lankan media too bowed in appreciation for Sachin Tendulkar, lauding his historic and awe-inspiring double ton in the Gwalior ODI. Calling him a "batting god", editorials lavished praise on Tendulkar who became the first batsman in the history of one-day cricket to score a double hundered when he struck 200 not out against South Africa. "Sachin Tendulkar quenched the thirst of millions by his record breaking double century in ODIs," said a report. The state-owned ''Daily News'' devoted a voluminous article on the Indian and wrote, "It has been said and accepted that in India cricket is religion and Tendulkar god. And that belief came true when the batting god delivered in making the first double hundred in the history of one-day international cricket." "At 36 years of age, he does not seem to have slowed. Like all great batsmen do, he first got his eye in, got a feel of how the wicket was playing, its bounce and movement and then began the batting show of the shows. MORE PTI TVS PM

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South Africa decide to bat against India

Published>Sat, Feb 27 10 02:44 PM

Ahmedabad, Feb 27 (IANS) South Africa captain Jacques Kallis won the toss and decided to bat in the third and the last One-day International against India at Motera here Saturday.

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