South Africa’s Team Shosholoza and France’s Areva Challenge were the main winners and losers at the Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia, Spain, on Friday. The pair met in round 11 of the first stage of the round-robin matches, with Areva holding a 100m cushion at the finish, only for the hapless French to get disqualified on a technicality.
South Africa’s Team Shosholoza was back in the hunt again on Thursday to put two more points on the scoreboard after a fiercely fought victory over the Italian +39 Challengers in an all-Italian set of races for the South Africans at the Louis Vuitton Cup in Valencia, Spain.
The Louis Vuitton Cup competitors sailed for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. The America’s Cup challengers series had raced only three of 16 flights before the wind picked up and allowed for racing on Tuesday. The sea breeze continued to blow on Wednesday, allowing all five races to start.
Italian yacht Luna Rossa suffered a shock defeat to South African Team Shosholoza on Tuesday as the Louis Vuitton Cup saw racing for only the third time in nine days. Wind speeds of eight knots meant that for only the third day since the Cup began at the beginning of last week, the 11 challengers took to the waters around Valencia.
The lack of wind and attitude of the organisers at the Louis Vuitton Cup has finally got to several of the challengers, led by joint series leaders Luna Rosa Challenge. Also, South Africa’s Team Shosholoza’s heads accused the race favourites of influencing the organisers over whether they could race.
South Africa’s Team Shosholoza has made history by being the first ever African challenger to win a race in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challenger selection series for the 2007 America’s Cup. In a tremendous victory for the entire African continent, the South African first-timers at the America’s Cup led United Internet Team Germany from start to finish.
After four days of racing lost to poor winds, the Louis Vuitton Cup finally got under way on Friday as the first regatta between United Internet Germany of Germany and BMW Oracle of the United States took place. With a wind speed of between eight and nine knots, the first regatta began at 2.15pm local time in the port of Valencia.
Nowhere in the labyrinth of legal minutiae that is the America’s Cup rules book is there a section on boats enlisting help from above, which is just as well as South Africa’s Team Shosholoza claim to have a hotline to heaven. The service provider to the link to the Almighty is Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho saluted his side’s second-half fightback after they came from a goal down to beat Valencia 2-1 and claim a place in the semifinals of the Champions League on Tuesday. ”I think it was a great performance in the second half against a good team and in a difficult stadium and when we were losing 1-0,” Mourinho told a news conference.
Manager Jose Mourinho paid tribute to Côte d’Ivoire striker Didier Drogba on the eve of Chelsea’s Champions League quarterfinal second leg in Valencia. ”He’s more than a goalscorer, he’s the kind of player who even if he doesn’t score still makes an important contribution,” Mourinho told a news conference on Monday.
It was a really very ”Good Friday” for South Africa’s Team Shosholoza who showed superb form in tight tactical racing to keep up with the big guns of the America’s Cup by posting a seventh and a fifth place on the fourth day of the Louis Vuitton Act 13-fleet racing regatta.
Sevilla can continue to dream about becoming only the second team to retain the UEFA Cup despite a narrow 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the quarterfinal first leg in Seville on Thursday. However, the Spaniards were dealt a very early blow when Robbie Keane got one of the quickest goals seen in European competition this season.
Engineers have dreamt of it for a quarter-century: linking Europe and Africa at the spot where the two very different worlds gaze at each other across a strip of choppy water. Now, after seemingly endless studies that turned up more than one nasty geological surprise, a project for a high-speed rail tunnel connecting the continents is gathering momentum.
Barcelona turned on the style to pull three points clear at the top of the Primera Liga with a 2-1 win over Deportivo Coruna on Saturday. Brazilian playmaker Ronaldinho, who has been at the centre of intense media speculation over his future, helped set up goals for Lionel Messi before the break and Samuel Eto’o soon after the restart.
Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar joined tens of thousands of people in a march through the Spanish capital to protest against the continuing war in Iraq and to demand the closure of the United States prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Other rallies were held around Spain.
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/ 22 February 2007
Only a few days ago, Liverpool’s Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise were battling each other in a training-camp fracas, but the pair joined forces to give Liverpool a memorable 2-1 win at Barcelona on Wednesday. One goal from each man made Liverpool the overwhelming favourites to progress to the Champions League quarterfinals.
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/ 21 February 2007
Three-time African Player of the Year Samuel Eto’o has been left out of the Barcelona squad to play Liverpool in their Champions League last 16 first-leg match on Wednesday. The Catalan club said on Tuesday that last season’s Spanish First Division top scorer would miss the clash between the last two Champions League winners because he was still not 100% fit.
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/ 20 February 2007
Real Madrid have denied media reports that coach Fabio Capello handed in his resignation on Monday evening, just one day before their Champions League clash against Bayern Munich. ”The board is unaware of any resignation by Fabio Capello and we were very surprised by the reports that appeared in the media,” club spokesperson Miguel Angel Arroyo said.
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/ 19 February 2007
From a cellphone with just six brightly coloured buttons to one that lets users dictate text messages to a handset that delivers the results of a breathalyser test, manufacturers put their most eye-catching gadgets on display at last week’s wireless industry conference.
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/ 18 February 2007
David Beckham was sent off in the final minute of Real Madrid’s 0-0 home draw with lowly Real Betis in the Primera Liga on Saturday. The former England captain, making his 150th appearance for the club, was shown a straight red card for a late challenge on Isidoro.
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/ 16 February 2007
Two more alleged masterminds behind the deadly 2004 Madrid train bombings denied on Friday any involvement in the attacks and followed an accused co-plotter in refusing to address the court directly. Moroccans Youssef Belhadj and Hassan el-Haski both insisted on their innocence.
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/ 16 February 2007
It could be the answer to grandma’s prayers: a cellphone designed specifically for the over-65s that aims to take the fear out of technology and get the elderly connected. A small Austrian company shrugged off the buzz of innovation at the 3GSM cellphone trade show this week and showcased a simple handset for the "grey market".
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/ 16 February 2007
Spanish police arrested the suspected hijacker of a Mauritanian plane who was knocked over by a hard landing and overpowered by passengers on Thursday, a source close to the Mauritanian Presidency said. The Air Mauritania Boeing 737 was on an internal flight in Mauritania when the hijacker, armed with pistols, demanded to be flown to France, officials said.
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/ 14 February 2007
Reigning Formula One champion Fernando Alonso said on Tuesday the press are to blame for focusing on a comment last week that the thing he likes most about his McLaren-Mercedes is the colour. Alonso also said in pre-season testing that the car of his new team, after successive titles with Renault, has ”some way to go” before it can deliver victories in the new season.
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/ 13 February 2007
Ferrari had a frustrating time testing in Spain on Monday with both the F2007s driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa suffering electrical failure. ”Ferrari had scheduled an endurance test, technical adjustments and the development of new aerodynamic parts,” a statement from Ferrari reported after a session that was also affected by rain.
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/ 13 February 2007
Cellphones are being harnessed to fight HIV/Aids in Africa under a new -million scheme announced on Tuesday with the backing of leading companies and the United States government. South Africa’s MTN is the first operator partner in the programme.
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/ 12 February 2007
An alliance of all major music publishers and 23 cellphone operators said on Monday they would launch a music service to 690-million phone subscribers. The first operators to provide it will be Telenor in Norway and Vodafone partner network Vodacom in South Africa.
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/ 16 January 2007
A Spanish doctor on Tuesday stood by his opinion that Fidel Castro is recovering from stomach surgery despite a newspaper report stating the Cuban leader is in a serious condition after a number of failed operations. Surgeon Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, who examined Castro in December, has not changed his prognosis that the 80-year-old is slowly recovering after treatment.
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/ 11 January 2007
Former England captain David Beckham will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season and sign a five-year deal for Major League Soccer side Los Angeles Galaxy, he told the media on Thursday. ”This week Real Madrid asked me to make a decision regarding my future and the offer to extend my contract for a further two seasons,” Beckham said.
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/ 10 January 2007
Confusion surrounded David Beckham’s Real Madrid future on Wednesday after the player’s spokesperson said an interview with Real’s sporting director Predrag Mijatovic had been misinterpreted. Sky Italia said Mijatovic had told the channel Beckham’s contract would not be renewed and that he would leave.
The Basque separatist group ETA said on Tuesday it planted a car bomb that killed two people at Madrid airport on the New Year weekend, but that a ”permanent ceasefire” was still intact. ”[ETA] claims responsibility for the attack at Barajas [airport],” ETA said in a statement to Gara newspaper, the group’s usual mouthpiece.
Most people cannot imagine Spain without bullfights, but there are growing signs that the country’s centuries-old fiesta nacional (national celebration) is on the decline. Not only are young people losing interest in the glittering and bloody spectacle, but even some of the authorities are beginning to feel embarrassed about this ”art”.