Keep up to date with all the sports news. We have set up special pages on our website for football, tennis, skating, motorsport, cycling and darts news, on which the most important matters in these sports are highlighted. In this section Sport Kort mainly the other messages are discussed.
Bobber De Bruin not close to Olympic requirement
5:41 PM: It is becoming increasingly difficult for bobsleigh pilot Ivo de Bruin to compete in the Beijing Winter Games. Also in the World Cup competition in Winterberg, the Dutchman with inhibitor Jelen Franjic did not achieve the desired result in the two-man bob. De Bruin finished nineteenth at more than two seconds from the German winner Francesco Friedrich.
He gets another chance in the four-man bob on Sunday. The last games are next weekend, in St. Moritz, Switzerland. A place in the top-12 of the World Cup standings is now unattainable. De Bruin now needs a top 8 listing in one of the upcoming matches to qualify for Beijing. In the four-man bob, he finished eleventh twice this season.
Skier Hector wins, first World Cup points Jelinkova
4:59 PM: Swedish skier Sara Hector won the giant slalom at the World Cup in Kransjka Gora on Saturday. Hector was the fastest in both runs in the Slovenian ski resort.
Adriana Jelinkova, the Dutch skier who will participate in the Beijing Winter Games next month, took points for the World Cup standings for the first time this season. After two runs she finished 28th, good for 3 points. Jelinkova did exactly that on the slopes where she tore her anterior cruciate ligament a year ago. It wasn’t until ten months later that she made her comeback.
Hector was behind the French Tessa Worley and the Italian Marta Bassino over two runs. American star Mikaela Shiffrin only finished seventh, but remains in the lead in the overall World Cup standings. Hector passed her in the giant slalom standings.
Burkina Faso misses players due to corona at the opening of the Africa Cup
4.07 pm: Burkina Faso will play the opening match of the Africa Cup against host country Cameroon with a team damaged by the corona virus on Sunday. Assistant national coach Firmin Sanou said on Saturday in Yaoundé that “four to five players” and national coach Kamou Malo have tested positive.
Sanou indicated that it mainly concerns basic players, but did not name names. According to local media, the players involved are Saidou Simporé, Dango Ouattara, Oula Abass Traoré, Edmond Tapsoba and Gustavo Sangaré. They would have tested positive on Friday. According to Sanou, those involved will be tested again before the game, in the hope of a negative result.
Pogba out of action for Manchester United for at least a month
3:57 pm: Manchester United coach Ralf Rangnick thinks he will not be able to call on Paul Pogba for at least a month. The French midfielder has been suffering from a thigh injury for several months. The 28-year-old Pogba has only appeared nine times in the Premier League this season and his last game in the competition was on October 24.
“He is not training with the team yet. As far as I know through the medical department it will take another three to four weeks and if he is fit to train with, that does not mean that he is also competition fit,” said Rangnick. “It will probably be a few more weeks before he can really participate.” Manchester United will return to action on Monday. Aston Villa is the opponent in the FA Cup.
FC Groningen has a short training camp in Germany after all
3:29 PM: FC Groningen has decided to organize a short training camp in Germany in the coming days “under adjusted conditions”. Several football clubs returned early from abroad last week. The training camp lasts from Saturday to Monday.
“After careful consideration, the Pride of the North has decided to adjust the layout of the training camp, so that it can travel to Germany. The hotel Klosterpforte in Harsewinkel-Marienfeld, where players and staff stay, is exclusively accessible to them,” the club reports.
On Monday, the practice match against SV Rödinghausen will be played on the fields near the hotel. Media and other club representatives are not welcome during the training camp. FC Groningen will resume the competition next Sunday with a home match against leader PSV.
Handball players’ practice match canceled due to corona contamination
2.12 pm: A practice match of the Dutch men in Sweden has been canceled due to a corona infection within the selection. The Orange squad would face Sweden on Saturday.
The Dutchman Ephrahim Jerry tested positive on Friday, as did a Swede. “The entire Dutch team was tested again on Saturday. The retest shows that the results of the rest of the team are negative. The team will continue its preparations for the European Championship,” said the handball association.
The Orange squad also faced Sweden on Thursday, which lost 34-30. The Netherlands will start the European Championship on Thursday with a match against Hungary.
Barty defeats Swiatek to reach final in Adelaide
11:24 am: Ashleigh Barty has qualified for the final of a WTA tournament in Adelaide in front of her home crowd. The number 1 in the world was with 6-2 6-4 the superior of the Polish Iga Swiatek.
The 25-year-old Barty, who is playing her first tournament since the US Open, did not give up a single service game against Swiatek. She finished it off on her second match point after 87 minutes.
On Sunday, Barty will meet Jelena Rybakina from Kazakhstan in the final. The number 7 of the seeding list was 6-4 6-3 too strong for Misaki Doi from Japan.
Swiatek was the best in Adelaide last year, Barty was victorious in 2020. Another WTA tournament will take place in the Australian city next week.
Snowboarder De Blois sixth at world cup competition in Russia
10.34 am: Snowboarder Glenn de Blois finished sixth in the cross section at the World Cup competition in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The 26-year-old De Blois has never finished so high this season. He finished thirteenth in qualifying.
The German Martin Nörl was the best in Krasnoyarsk, the Frenchman Merlin Surget was second and the third place was for the Austrian Julian Lüftner.
De Blois, who finished fourth last World Cup season, will participate in the Winter Olympics in Beijing next month.
Canadian tennis players via title holder Russia to ATP Cup final
10:06 a.m.: The Canadian tennis players have secured a place in the final of the ATP Cup. They were 2-1 too strong for Russia, which won the country tournament last year.
Denis Shapovalov and Félix Auger-Aliassime defeated Daniil Medvedev and Roman Safioellin in the deciding doubles 4-6 7-5 10-7. Shapovalov had won 6-4 5-7 6-4 against Safioellin in the singles and Medvedev had leveled the Russians by leaving Auger-Aliassime 6-4 6-0.
The Canadians will face Spain in the final on Sunday, which already settled with Poland on Friday.
Canada is also the opponent of the Netherlands in the Davis Cup at the beginning of March. The meeting will be played on a clay court in The Hague.
Antetokounmpo leads Bucks past Nets in NBA top
08:58 a.m.: Giannis Antetokounmpo helped the Milwaukee Bucks basketball players in the NBA to a 31-point victory over the Brooklyn Nets. It was 121-109. The Greek took 31 points in the top match in Brooklyn.
For Antetokounmpo (27) it was his seventh game in a row against the Nets in which he was good for at least 30 points. “There’s a lot of excitement in the air when you play Brooklyn. We had chances to shoot, we defended well and we helped each other,” said the top scorer for the Bucks, who are third in the Eastern Conference. The Nets are second behind the Chicago Bulls.
Antetokounmpo missed the last game due to illness. He recently missed five duels due to corona protocols.
The Bucks were too strong for the Nets in the semifinals of the seven-game playoffs last year. The Milwaukee team eventually took the title.
Osaka withdraws from Melbourne semi-final
08.31 am: Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from the semi-final battle of a Melbourne WTA tournament, one of the preparatory tournaments for the Australian Open. According to the Japanese, who made her comeback after a four-month absence, her body is having a hard time at the first tournament in a long time.
“Unfortunately, I am suffering from an abdominal injury and I need rest to properly prepare for the Australian Open,” Osaka said in a statement. She would compete in the last four against the Russian Veronika Koedermetova.
The final in Melbourne will be between Koedermetova and Romanian Simona Halep, who defeated China’s Zheng Qinwen 6-3 6-2.
The 24-year-old Osaka took the title at the Australian Open last year. She hadn’t played since the US Open in early September.
Koolhof beats Rojer in Melbourne doubles semifinal
08.12 am: Wesley Koolhof has qualified for the doubles final in Melbourne at the expense of Jean-Julien Rojer. Together with his British partner Neal Skupski, Koolhof was 6-2 6-4 too strong for Rojer, who forms a couple with Marcelo Arévalo from El Salvador.
The 32-year-old Koolhof and Skupski (32) will face the Kazakh Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi from Pakistan in the final battle.
Koolhof and Rojer formed a permanent duo last year. They participated together in the Olympic Games, where Rojer tested positive for the corona virus. After disappointing performances, they both decided to look for a new doubles partner for 2022.
De Jong misses the final on Australian challenger
08.12 am: Jesper de Jong failed to reach the final of the challenger tournament in Traralgon. 21-year-old De Jong lost 6-4 6-2 to fourth-seeded Czech Tomas Machac in the semi-final.
In the quarterfinals, De Jong had booked a handsome victory over the first-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon (6-4 6-1), the former number 6 in the world. De Jong is currently in 203rd place in the global ranking and was placed 12th in Traralgon.
De Jong is now traveling to Melbourne for the qualifications of the Australian Open, which will take place next week. The main tournament starts on Monday 17 January.