Sports in brief - 2012-03-29

Leading Latvian road cyclist Gatis Smukulis has completed the 2012 Volta A Catalunya in 73rd position. Riding on the seven-stage tour beginning in Calella on March 19 and finishing in Barcelona on March 25, the 24-year-old Latvian national time trial champion finished 28 minutes and 16 seconds behind race winner Michael Albasini of Switzerland. It was in the same race in 2011 when the Katusha team rider made a name for himself, surprisingly breaking away from the peleton on the opening stage to claim the biggest stage victory of his career. This year stage one again provided Smukulis’ best finish of the week when he crossed the finish line in 29th position as part of the main peleton. Despite not having a strong personal finish, Smukulis did play a key part in helping Katusha finish second overall in the team’s classification, two minutes and 19 seconds down on Garmin-Cervelo. Also racing last week, up-and-coming riders Toms Skujins of Latvia and Evaldas Siskevicius of Lithuania finished 61st and 95th, respectively, in the three-stage Criterium International in France.

Another week and more early round exits for the Baltics’ leading male and female tennis players, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia and Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. Competing in the respective men’s and women’s draws at the two-week Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, USA, Gulbis failed to make it past the first round, whilst Kanepi, who was granted direct access to the second round on account of her tournament 31st seeding, also failed to venture any further into the draw. Coming up against qualifier Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, Gulbis exited in straight sets 6-4, 6-4. The latest loss for the world no. 79 takes his ATP tournament record for 2012 to two wins and six losses and all but guarantees that his world ranking will suffer another slide when the next rankings are released. For 26-year-old Kanepi, the straight sets 7-5, 6-3 loss to Silvia Soler-Espinosa can be attributed to the fact that the world no. 34 is still on the road to recovery following a significant lay-off to overcome a shoulder injury. The match was just her second competitive hit out since returning to the court after falling early in the draw at the Australian Open back in January. It is unclear at this stage as to where the two players are next expected to appear on court.

The Baltic Basketball League (BBL) quarter-finals have been marred by controversy following the second leg match-up between Estonian club Kalev/Cramo and Latvian rivals VEF Riga on Saturday night. After easily winning the opening exchange of the best-of-three series in Saldus, Latvia, last Thursday, the Latvian champions had been expected to complete a series whitewash in Tallinn. However, in front of a buoyant home crowd, Kalev/Cramo was putting up more of a fight, leading by two going into the final seconds of the game. Curtis Millage then appeared to have won the game for VEF with a three-pointer on the buzzer. But, after reviewing the decision a number of times on courtside television, the referee and umpires overturned their earlier decision of awarding the three-pointer, claiming there was not enough evidence as to whether or not the VEF guard was clearly standing behind the three-point line, opting instead to award the Latvian club two points for the shot and, subsequently, send the game into overtime, where Kalev/Cramo held on for a 79-76 win. Photos later circulating in the media showed clear space between Millage’s foot and the three-point line, but having failed to immediately signal their intent to lodge a protest as soon as the game finished, VEF’s later attempts to protest were turned down. Game three of the series takes place at Arena Riga on Saturday afternoon, beginning at 16:00.