In brief - 2004-03-11

  • 2004-03-11
Like a good Latvian, Karlis Skrastins of the Colorado Avalanche managed to stay out of the penalty box in one of the most brutal NHL hockey games in recent memory.

Thirty-seven penalties were dished out, and one Colorado player had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher after being violently hit from behind by a Vancouver thug (who was given a game misconduct attempt-to-injure penalty). Colorado won the game 9 - 2.

Kaunas Zalgiris was impressive in its first game of the Euroleague competitions' second round on March 4, beating Ulker Istanbul 85 - 73 in Turkey. Arvydas Sabonis was unstoppable, scoring 25 points and collecting 16 rebounds. Tanoka Beard added 18 points and 7 rebounds. Zalgiris will host group favorite Tel Aviv Maccabi on March 11 where Euroleague officials will award Sabonis the MVP trophy for the regular season.

Olympic hopeful Austra Skujyte (photo) became the first ever Lithuanian after independence to win a medal in an indoor athletics event. Skujyte won the bronze in the pentathlon event in the 2004 World Indoor Women's Athletics Championship held in Budapest. Poland's Naide Gomes and Ukraine's Natalya Dobrynska won the gold and silver respectively.

At the 2004 World Indoor Track and Field Champion-ship in Budapest, the Latvian athlete Stanislavs Olijars took part in the 60-meter hurdles March 6. He missed bronze medal by only 1/100th of a second. As a result, Olijars took fourth place with a result of 7.49 sec., his personal record. The winner was Alen Johnson (7.36 sec.). During the whole run Olijars managed to keep fourth position.

Two more Lithuanians solidified their place on the Olympic national team for this year's Athens games by taking bronze at the European Boxing Championship held in Pula, Croatia. These were the first medals and Olympic spots for both Jaroslav Jaksto (photo) and Rolandas Jasevicius who compete in the 91 kg and 69 kg weight categories, respectively.

The Latvian athlete Valentina Gotovska took fifth place in the long jump competition 2004 World Indoor Track and Field Championship. Her best result was 6.67 meters.
The winner was Tatjana Lebedeva (Russia).