Local Football:

Thiagoras 1 v Iraklis IR 0:

A good start for Thiagoras with Yiorgos Thelistathis hitting the post but then the game became a midfield battle for the next 30 minutes with neither goalkeeper having to make a save. The match came to life again when Thiagoras’ Thelistathis cleared the ball from his own penalty box after which it bounced over the Iraklis goalkeeper and hit the bar. This resulted in a corner from which the Iraklis goalkeeper, Yiorgos Minathakis, made a very good save. Iraklis then had a good ten minutes of attacking football but could not break down the Thiagoras defense. In the second half Thiagoras began with a lot more purpose with Pavlos Moraitakis and Yiannis Metohianakis both going close to goal. Finally, in the 55^th minute a good header by Metohianakis opened the scoring. Thiagoras now took control of the game with Karagounis and Dimitri Somarakis both going close to add to the score. In the 80^th minute Iraklis suddenly stepped up the attack and the Thiagoras defence looked, for the first time, very shaky. In the 85^th minute Yiorgos Kanonis was sent off for a foul on the Thiagoras goalkeeper and the final five minutes were very nervy for Thiagoras as Iraklis went close to goal on two occasions but they held out to win by one goal.

Khronicles Man of the Match was Pavlos Moraitakis for his constant attacking play.

Another two coaches go. With only a few games to play, the coach of relegation threatened Levadiakos has quit the club following their home defeat of 0 – 3 by OFI. Also Olympiakos’ coach, Takis Lemonis, has been dismissed making it 40 coaching jobs lost since 1980 for the club. Despite this, Olympiakos remain as contenders for the League and the Greek Cups. This brings coaching changes to about half of the league’s 16 teams this year.

Special Olympics: Athens is to host the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games. The games which promise to be one of the world’s largest multi-sport and humanitarian events in 2011 will unite around 7,500 athletes from more than 170 countries. The games’ logo which was designed by Theodora Mantzari, was unveiled. It is a radiant sun and the colours reflect the Greek landscape and project emotions, red for life, orange for optimism, blue for determination, light blue for freedom and green for hope.

Paragliding on Crete: Grigoris Thomakakis, aged 47, was born in Iraklion and has been paragliding for 16 years, flying in Greece and the rest of Europe. He has been an instructor since 1994 and has been responsible for the development of most of the flying sites on Crete. He is continually looking for new sites to fly in Crete and he also coaches visiting fliers making them aware of the fun of the sport.

Gymnastics: Greek gymnastic wonder kid, Lefteris Kosmidis has continued his impressive form ahead of the Beijing Olympics by winning the gold medal in the floor exercises event at the Doha Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series in Qatar. Kosmidis is still only 16 and came onto the scene in 2007 by winning a bronze medal at the floor exercise event in Amsterdam.

Water Polo: Both the Greek men and women’s water polo teams have secured their qualification to the Olympic Games in Beijing. This is also the 13^th time the Greek men’s team has qualified to an Olympic Games.

Martial Arts:

Ikaros: The awards for the top athletes of 2007 for the Athletic Association of Martial Arts Ikaros were given out at the cutting of the New Year’s cake reception in Anathromes. The top five athletes were:

Panayiota Amariotaki 1^st; Ioanna Daskalaki 2^nd; Emmanuil Stefanakis 3^rd; Promitheas Trifinopoulos 4^th; Myron Harkoutsakis 5^th.

Coach  Em. Amariotakis  thanked sponsors I. Kalantzaki and G. & M. Haniotaki with commemorative plaques for their generous gifts to the athletes.

Anna Daskalaki took the silver at the qualifying Panhellenic Karate Championships in March at the 60k young women category. Good luck at the finals.

With twenty-six athletes from Ikaros Gouves entering the 1^st Interclub Karate Championship in N. Alikarnassos, Ikaros collected 24 medals all together.

Ermis: The Athletic Association Ermis from Kokkini Hani took part at the annual Tang Soo Do – Soo Bahk Do which was held in a closed gymnasium in Hersonissos. All the association’s participating athletes took distinctions and medals at form and sparring.

Korean Karate: The 2^nd Cretan Interclub Championship Korean Karate Tang Soo Do – Soo Bahk Do was successfully held at the Filonithio Stadium in Hersonissos, drawing from the experience of the two Hellenic Championships in 2001 and 2004, the international symposium in 2006 and the 1^st Interclub Korean Karate Championship in 2007. About 150 athletes, male and female and from all parts of Greece took part in form and sparring.

The Tang Soo Do – Soo Bahk Do Cretan athletes took many 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd medals.

Mayor Spiros Danelis, The Public Athletic Organization and the Hersonissos Medical Center were cited for their assistance, as well as  co- sponsors Games-R-Us, Kourkounis S.A Tours, Mega Cava and the Martial Arts Athletic Associations of Hersonissos and N. Alikarnasos.

Sports to watch in April

Local football:

April 5: Rafkos v AEK Karteros.  Aris Gournon v Ag Vasileios. Skinias v Romanos.

April 6: Koroivos v Thiagoras 11.00. Anthestion v Gouves

April 12: AEK Karteros v Rouvas. Neo Irothotou v Gouves

April 19: Gouves v Atromitos 17.00. Thiagoras v Iraklis Nip. 17.00. Pigasos v Aris Gournon 17.00

April 20: Romanos v Koroivos 11.00. Zaros v AEK Karteros 17.00

All matches at 16.30 unless otherwise stated.

OFI Games

April 6:  OFI v Panionios 15.00

April 13: Aris Salonica v OFI 15.00

Tennis

April 11 to 13: 2008 Davis Cup World Quarter Finals. Russia v Czech Republic. Argentina v Sweden. Germany v Spain. USA v France.

Snooker

April 15 to May 5: World Snooker Championship from the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England.

Formula One

April 4 to 6: The Gulf Air Bahrain Grand prix, Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain.

April 25 to 27: The Spanish Grand Prix, Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.

Boxing

April 19: Joe Calzaghe (Wales) v Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins (U.S.A.) in a non title light heavyweight contest in Las Vegas, U.S.A.

Golf

April 10 to 13: The Masters. Augusta National Golf Club, Georgia, U.S.A.

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