Armenia up 4 lines in FIFA Rankings

Review of July 8-15 sports events.

Football: FIFA published the national rankings, where Armenia is the 96th, going up 4 lines with 318 points. New world champions, Spain, top the rankings with 1883 points, followed by the Netherlands (1659 points) and Brazil (1536 points).

PanARMENIAN.Net - FC Banants (Armenia) lost the return match against FC Anorthosis (Cyprus), 0:1, in the first qualifying round of 2010-2011 Europa League, dropping out of the competition with the aggregate result of two matches being 0:4. The same day, FC Ulysses (Armenia) dropped as well, losing its return match against FC Bney-Yehuda (Israel), 0:1, after tying the first match in Yerevan.

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It became known that Yerevan will host UEFA European U-21 Championship Armenia vs. Georgia qualifier on August 11, 2010. The return match will be played in Tbilisi on September 7.

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2009 champions of Armenia – FC Pyunik – were defeated by Serbia’s Partizan 1:3 in the second qualification round of the UEFA Champions League in Belgrade on July 14. Artak Yedigaryan scored the only goal for Pyunik. The return match is due July 21 in Yerevan.

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Chess:The Professional Chess Association (PCA) has summed up the results of 2009-2010, naming Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) as the best chess player with 2897 points. Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) come 2nd and 3rd respectively. Vladimir Mosvisian (Slovakia) is 23rd. Current World Champion Viswanathan Anand is 25th.

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Due to his victory over Luka Lenic (Slovenia), Armenia’s Tigran Petrosyan is currently second in Sevana Lich chess tournament with 3 points, followed by Robert Hovhannisyan (2.5 points) who lost his game vs. Samvel Ter-Sahakyan. Arman Pashikyan tops the tournament with three points.

Armenian grandmaster Hrant Melkumyan and international master Grigor Sevak Mekhitarian gained 5 points each at an international tournament in Benasque, Spain. Karen Movsisyan and Zaven Andreasyan have 4.5 points each.

* Armenian grandmaster Tigran Kotanjyan is currently 4th in Nana Alexandria Cup in Poti, Georgia.

BoxingUnbeaten WBO/WBA/WIBF flyweight champion Susi Kentikian (27-0, 16 KOs) will defend against fellow unbeaten Arely Mucino (11-0-1, 6 KOs) from Mexico in July 17 “Universum Champions Night” event featuring two world title bouts and an important WBO eliminator. “Everybody has a weakness, even Arely. I will find it and exploit it in the ring!” Killer Queen Susi Kentikian told a press conference.

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The venue and the fight date are not finalized, but super middleweight Carl Froch is planning to test the chin of Arthur Abraham when they face off in the third stage of Showtime's Super Six tournament. Froch isn't confident that Abraham is able to take the monster shots of a true super middleweight. Abraham moved up to the weight last fall after spending most of his career at 160-pounds. Froch would later go after Abraham's promoter Kalle Saulerland of Sauerland Event. He is upset over Kalle's recent comments regarding Abraham-Froch being the type of fight where the judges are not a factor, so the location of where the fight takes place should not be a huge issue. Froch and Abraham have yet to finalize their date because the two camps are fighting over where the fight should take place. Froch is made over what he claims was handshake deal with Kalle, to stage the fight with Abraham in the UK.

Youth Olympic games: The number of Armenian sportsmen to participate in Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games has increased. The Armenian National Olympic Committee has decided on participation of Diana Khubaseryan (Athletics), Gevorg Papoyan (Aquatics) and Edgar Babayan (Canoe-Kayak).

Tennis: Argentine hero David Nalbandian fired his nation into the Davis Cup semi-finals Sunday to complete a 3-2 defeat of Russia in a World Group quarter-final struggle, DPA reported. The 28-year-old hip surgery victim from 2009, his ranking down past 150, iced the tie with a defeat of Mikhail Youzhny, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 6-3 in the deciding rubber. It was the first time Argentina had defeated Russia in Moscow after two losses in the capital.

Basketball: Vice President of the Basketball Federation of Armenia, Vahagn Harutyunyan, assistant to chief coach of the Armenian women’s basketball team Vardan Khachatryanand two players met with journalists to discuss the results of European Championship Women Division C that was held in Yerevan from June 28 to July 3. “Our team’s goal was to break through to Division B and we did it, despite the defeat in the final,” Harutyunyan said. Captain Liana Baghdasaryan thinks that they showed a good game.

Hasmik Babayan, Gohar Nalbandyan / PanARMENIAN News
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