News, March 2008

Sport roundup, 28th March

8 medals for swimmers in European Swimming championships. 2 Spaniards -Lorenzo and Pedrosa- on first MotoGP podium of year in Quater. Barcelona sole survivor in Champions' League to 1/4 finals. Joventut wins basketball Copa del Rey. Madrid heads Primera and ACB league. For more, read on!

Details.

Football (soccer): Champions: last 16 round 2: Barcelona beat Celtic, Sevilla lost to Fenerbahçe, Rome beat Real Madrid. Madrid leads League, 5 points ahead of Barça. Getafe-Racing and Valencia-Barcelona are the Copa del Rey semi finals. Life sentence: Raúl and Casillas sign lifetime contracts with Real Madrid. UK: Juan de Ramos' Spurs wins Carling (FA) Cup at Wembley.
Motor: Bikes: Lorenzo 2nd and Pedrosa 3rd in openeing MotoGP race of season in Quatar; Gadea and Olivé top 125 podium, while Barberá 2nd in 250. F1: Ferrari drivers have no fear of Alonso this year.
Basketball Joventut wins Copa del Rey (King's Cup); Madrid leads ACB; Pau Gasol leaves Grizzlies for Lakers and gives great first performance: 24 points against Nets.
Tennis: Dubai - Nadal struggles to beat Kohlschreiber, while Federer goes down; Nadal within 350 points of leader.
Other sports Swimming Spaniards did excellently in the European championships at Eindhoven: 8 swimming medals (one gold), plus 4 synchronised golds. Mireia Belmonts took the gold in the 200m medley and bronze in the 200m fly -at 17 years old; the synchronised team again swept the floor - but Gemma Mengual is starting to speak of retirement; the team has high hopes for Beijing. Athletics: Spain did poorly in Valencia indoor world championships.