Lithuanian SEB basketball team Neptunas Klaipeda outscored Dalkia/Nybit by seven points in the final quarter to win 95-83. The feat marked Klaipeda's 10th victory in 29 games, and they remain in 12th place. Nybit has won seven games and lost 21, placing them 15th overall. As usual, Nybit was much weaker in rebounding, losing 25-39. The team made 10 fouls, letting their opponents score just as many points from the free-throw line.
Latvian biathlete Kaspars Dumbris won the Junior European Cup's 12.5- kilometer event. He made five mistakes in shooting, but finished 20.3 seconds earlier then his closest competitor, Miroslav Kobuss from Poland. Another Latvian sportsman, Davis Putnis, lost almost 3.5 minutes to the winner and ended up in ninth place.
World Cup downhill skiing champion Janica Kostelic (photo) won the final women's slalom of the season in Are, Sweden on March 17. The Croatian, who also took the slalom title, beat Austria's Marlies Schild by 0.87 seconds with her time of one minute 45.28 seconds. Sweden's Olympic champion, Anja Paerson, who won the event last year, finished third in 1:46.34. Last season's slalom cup winner Tanja Poutiainen of Finland and American Resi Stiegler shared fourth place.
FIFA announced that it was cracking down on racism. The international soccer association will use match suspensions, point deductions and disqualification as possible punishments against acts of racial intolerance. A team could lose three points for a first offense, six for a second and relegation for further offenses. Teams that ignore these rules could be banned from international football for two years. "Recent events have demonstrated there is a need for concerted action," said FIFA president Sepp Blatter. "More severe measures will be adopted in order to kick this evil [racism] out of the beautiful game."
Australian swimmer Leisel Jones set a world record in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Commonwealth Games on March 20 with a time of 1:05.09 seconds. It beat her own previous world best of 1:05.71, set at the Australian trials in Melbourne last month. Jones has earned three breaststroke gold medals in the Games, after earlier wins in the 50-meter and 200-meter events. The 20-year-old world record holder said, "I'm in absolute shock."
