Levon Aronian wins World Blitz Championship

PanARMENIAN.Net - Before, Levon Aronian and Sergei Karjakin (Russia) shared the first two places in Tal Memorial, having equal additional indices.

Another Armenian grandmaster Zaven Andriasyan won the Russian Cup, defeating Artem Timofeev in the final.

Basketball: Hatis Yerevan women’s basketball team hosted Dynamo-GUVD of Russia in the group stage of Euro Cup 2010/2011. The tense struggle ended in 90:99 victory of the Russian team. This has been the third loss of Hatis in EuroCup 2010/11 group stage matches.

Football: Pyunik won the Armenian Football Championship thanks to the victory over Kilikia in the last round on November 14. Banants finished 2nd, followed by Ullisses. Mika came 4th.

Fair Play winners were announced upon completion of the Armenian football championship. Pyunik was recognized as winner of the top division, followed by Mika and Banants. Banants-2, Ararat and Pyunik-3 are the top 3 in the first division

Yura Movsisyan, a forward of the Armenian national team and Danish FC Randers, said that there is no official decision on his transfer to FC Espanyol yet.The technical service of FC Espanyol is interested in Movsisyan and follows his performance. “I also learned from Internet just now that Espanyol is interest in me. I cannot say anything about it. Other football clubs want to purchase me as well. My agent deals with these matters. We will make a statement, if there is news,” Movsisyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

The first stage on the road to Turkey and the 2011/12 UEFA European Women's Under19 Championship was made Nov. 16 morning with the first qualifying round draw in Nyon. Hosts next summer, 2008 champions Italy have been drawn with Austria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Armenia. That is one of ten four-team mini-tournaments to be played between September 17 and 22, 2011. Spain, winners in 2004, have been matched with a Netherlands side that reached the last four this summer while 2005 titleholders Russia will take on Denmark, Greece and Latvia. The top two in each of the ten groups will progress to the second qualifying round along with the third-placed team with the best record against the top two in their section. Three countries await them there: with the highest coefficients, Germany, holders France and England were all given a bye through the initial stage. Seven teams advance from the second qualifying round to join hosts Turkey at the final tournament in Mugla between July 2 and 14, 2012.

Boxing: Former WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch will face Arthur Abraham in the third and final group stage bout of the Super Six tournament. While both fighters have already secured a spot in the semi-finals, there is still the vacant WBC belt on stake. A title Froch lost to Mikkel Kessler in his last fight. “The boxing match with Abraham is obviously a top- level fight. It’s a world-class fight. The main exciting thing right now is that the WBC title is on the line. That’s a real big deal,” Froch said.

“Of course we have tried to learn from the defeat (against Andre Dirrell). We have tried to change what we did in practice. The mistake I made against Dirrell was that I gave away the first couple of rounds. That won’t happen again and it’s something we’re looking to change in the next fight. One thing I learned from my fight against Dirrell is that I have to be more aggressive from the early rounds because those are the rounds I lost,” Abraham said.

Tennis: Spaniard Rafael Nadal (11450 points) continues to hold a lead in the top 10 in the men’s tennis rankings released by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) on November 15, 2010. Roger Federer (Switzerland) is second with 7645 points, followed by Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 5635 points). Argentine David Nalbandian dropped 2 places to be 27th with 1480 points.

Olympiad The 13th regional conference of National Olympic Committees of CIS and Baltic states took place in Yerevan on November 12. Welcoming the participants, President of the Armenian NOC Gagik Tsarukyan said that such events should take place more often. Head of the Secretariat of CIS National Olympic Committees Association Yuri Yuryev noted for his part that the conference offers a perfect opportunity to exchange information.

“The work is done according to the schedule. London is anticipating all participants,” UK ambassador to Armenia Charles Lonsdale said, adding that construction of new facilities in the British capital will not cause ecological problems.

Commenting on the preparation works in Sochi, Russia NOC/NPC Communications Manager Aleksandra Savina said that everything will be done on time. “Sochi will host 2750 sportsmen from 85 countries and about 600000 fans,” she said.