Armenian national weightlifting team for European Championships formed

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia is the fourth in FIDE federations ranking by average rating of top 10 players (2656). Armenia has 33 Grand Masters and 19 International Masters. The list of the top 10 players for Armenia is as follows: Levon Aronian, Sergei Movsesian, Gabriel Sargissian, Vladimir Akopian, Zaven Andriasian, Arman Pashikian, Tigran Petrosian, Avetik Grigoryan, Hrant Melkumyan and Rafael Vaganian. Russia tops the ranking, followed by Ukraine and China.

Levon Aronian (2,808 points) is the third in the FIDE ratings - Top 100 Players March 2011. India’s Viswanathan Anand tops the list with 2,817 points, followed by Norway’s Magnus Carlsen (2,815 points). Armenia’s Sergei Movsesian, Gabriel Sargissian and Vladimir Akopian are the 29th, 65th and 67th respectively.

Weightlifting: After completion of the Armenian Weightlifting Championships, Chief Coach of Armenia’s men team Poghos Poghosyan has formed the team, which will be getting prepared for the upcoming European Championships. Smbat Margaryan (56kg), Samvel Grigoryan, Vanik Avetisyan (both in weight category 69kg), Araik Mirzoyan, Aghasi Aghasyan (both in weight category 77kg), Edgar Gevorgyan (85kg), Gevorg Poghosyan (94kg) and Arthur Babayan (105kg) are among the team members, who will hold trainings in Tsaghkadzor. According to Poghosyan, the most important thing is that the weightlifters avoided injuries during the Armenian championships. “If the sportsmen show good results during the trainings, all of them will be provided with the opportunity to participate in the European Championships,” Poghosyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Tennis: Argentina’s Davis Cup team has launched trainings prior to the Davis Cup tie against Romania in Buenos Aires. David Nalbandian, who had problems with health, has joined the team since February 28. There'll be two training sessions per day for the tennis players. "The treatment I'm receiving has been good for me and I can say that I'm better than I expected. I think that I'll be ready," Nalbandian said. "Everybody knows that the Davis Cup is very important to me, it means a lot [to me] and therefore I'm willing to make an effort that maybe I wouldn't be making for a tournament on the Tour," he noted, adding "Argentina is always the favourite, playing at home and in my particular case, I want to play on all three days but together with Vazquez we're analysing what's going to be the best strategy." The team captain Modesto Vazquez said that the rival should not be underestimated. “Romanian team is well-trained, complete with experienced tennis players.” Argentina is represented by Nalbandian, Chela, Schwank and Monaco.

Boxing: Undefeated WBO #1 rated junior middleweight prospect Vanes Martirosyan (28-0, 17 KOs) will shake the rust off of his 9 month layoff when he takes on Bladimir Hernandez (18-4, 16KOs) on March 19 on the Lucian Bute-Brian Magee undercard. The bout takes place in Montreal, Quebec, at the Bell Centre. Martirosyan will then immediately return to the ring on April 23 when he takes on the rugged Saul Roman (34-8, 29 KOs) of Mexico for the WBC Silver junior middleweight title. The fight takes place at the WinStar Casino in Oklahoma and will be part of the Top Rank Live series and televised by Fox Sports. The winner of the bout will be the mandatory challenger to the winner of the Saul Alvarez-Mathew Hatton clash for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title

This week’s 113th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (23-0, 13 KOs) who is scheduled to face Arthur Abraham (32-2, 26 KOs) in the Semi-Finals of the Super Six Boxing Classic on May 14. “I’m locked in on fighting the best Arthur Abraham and not only winning, but winning spectacularly on May 14,” the boxer said. Dwelling on Abraham’s fight against Stjepan Bozic, he noted, “Abraham he wasn’t supposed to take that fight. From a contractual standpoint he was not supposed to take that fight. So why he was allowed to, I don’t understand that. With that being said, yeah I was extremely worried because just as easily as his opponent got hurt, he could have been hurt. I’m sure my team would have made sure that we kept that date, but I didn’t want any more replacements. I want to fight the guys that are in the tournament. So it would have just been disappointing if anything, but he took the fight and it lasted a round and a half or almost two rounds and I don’t really know how much that did for him.”