Swans break curse: The curse of Viasat, which had seen Michael Laudrup’s Swansea City fail to win following the broadcaster’s decision to favour English Premier League games featuring the Swans over all others, ended on Saturday with a 2-1 home win against lowly Wigan Athletic. So far, Swansea, in their eight games, have already played six of the bottom eight, and none of England’s ‘top five’.
Thorbjørn on Bjørn’s tail: Denmark’s rising golf star, Thorbjørn Olesen, has shot up into the top 60 in the world, overtaking Anders Hansen to become his country’s second highest-ranked player. Thomas Bjørn remains number one at 45, followed by Olesen at 59, Hansen at 64 and Søren Kjeldsen at 151. Andreas Hartøs, who recently won the Czech Open Challenge, has moved up to number 275.
Christian under the cosh: Christian Poulsen, one of six Danes currently playing for Dutch champions Ajax, has been subjected to a barrage of criticism in the media. One pundit, René van der Gijp, has called him a “terrible football player”, an opinion echoed by Ajax legend Sjaak Swart, while Johan Derksen, the editor of Dutch football magazine Voetbal International, said the decision to buy him was “incomprehensible”.
Brave point for FCN: FC Nordsjælland on Tuesday scored their first ever goal, and their first ever point, in the Champions League against Juventus at Parken, but it could have been so much more. Despite the Italian team’s superior shot ratio (30 vs 8), FCN went ahead in the 50th minute through a Mikkel Beckmann freekick. But Juve equalised after 81 minutes and should have won it through sub Nicklas Bendtner, who missed a glaring chance.
Helge’s medal haul: Gymnast Helge Vammen won the Northern European Championships overall men’s title in Glasgow on Saturday, and then followed it up with another gold in the individual pommel horse on Sunday. Competing against rivals from the Nordic countries and the UK, Vammen, who failed to qualify for the Olympics, also finished fifth in the rings, eighth in the vault and sixth in the parallel bars.
Chicky’s sticky rep: A retired Norwegian cyclist, Steffen Kjaergaard, has told his country’s news agency NTB that his former Danish team, Team Chicky World, introduced him to EPO and cortisone while he was there from 1998-99. The team was then led by Kim Andersen, the current sports director at Team RadioShack. Kjaergaard went on to race and dope with Lance Armstrong at US Postal.
