Jackie Gold!: As of this morning, Denmark sat in 49th place in the 2012 Paralympics medal table with five medals: one gold and four bronzes. Denmark’s gold came courtesy of Jackie Christiansen in the men’s shot put (F42/44 – amputees with a prosthesis), which he won by nearly four metres, while in the same disability class, Daniel Jorgensen took bronze in the men’s long jump.
Committed to the king: Describing Swansea City’s new manager Michael Laudrup as “royalty”, Viasat plans to show all his English Premier League games, with no exceptions! Some 85,000 viewers tuned into Viasat’s EPL-dedicated channel to watch Swansea beat West Ham United on Saturday August 25 – double the normal audience. Viasat, which shares the rights with K6, shows five EPL games every weekend.
Luck runs out for Løchte: Wimbledon men’s doubles champs, Denmark’s Frederik Løchte Nielsen and Britain’s Jonathan Marray, have failed to win a second grand slam title in succession, bowing out of the US Open in the second round. The number eleven seeds lost 1-6, 7-6, 4-6 to US/Austrian duo Jesse Levine and Marinko Matosevic, converting just two of their 19 break points, compared to their opponents’ 71 percent success ratio.
Squashed in the final: Line Hansen, the world number 26, made it to the final of the Crocodile Squash Challenge Cup in Hong Kong without losing a set over the weekend, but failed to perform when it mattered most. The 29-year-old lost in straight sets 6-11, 8-11, 6-11 to Australia’s Donna Urquhart, a player ranked nine places above her. The next best ranked Dane in the world is Sally Skaarenborg at number 94.
Danes still favourites: Denmark head into their first 2014 World Cup qualifier on Saturday without their star striker Nicklas Bendtner and midfielder Niki Zimling. However, their opponents, the Czech Republic, are also missing players, and the bookmakers still rate Denmark strong favourites to win (evens at Bet 365, while the Czechs are 11/4). The game at Parken kicks off at 20:15 and will be shown live on TV2.
