Sports Round-Up: Coach Dimitri Medvedjev Replaced by Finn
The Estonian national ice hockey team is optimistic going into World Championships in Serbia this week, although the team will compete in the fourth tier of the competition, having been relegated from group B of the first division last year.
Last season the led by former head coach Dimitri Medvedjev, lost all five games last year and arrived back in Estonia dead drunk and a national disgrace.
The team recently lost 3-1 and won 7-5 against Lithuania in two warmup matches. Lithuania is a division higher, but the mentality has changed with the new Finnish head coach Sakari Pietilä, who joined the team two weeks ago.
The team's 20-year-old captain Robert Rooba, who plies his trade in Finland, said the team has turned a new page and left the negativity of the past few years behind. He said the team now plays a more modern style of ice hockey.
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World champion and Olympic silver-medalist Heiki Nabi lost in the first round of the European Wrestling Championships in Finland over the weekend.
Its not all bad news for the Estonian, as he will be presented with the gold medal from the 2013 World Championships today. He won silver at the event last fall, but the then winner was later disqualified for doping, leaving Nabi with the gold.
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TÜ/Rock won Estonia's regular season in basketball, beating fierce rival Kalev/Cramo 86-81 on Saturday. Rock beat eighth-place Valga on Sunday in the last game to make it official.
Rock went 30-2 this season, while Cramo was 28-4. The top eight, out of a league of nine teams, will continue in the play-offs.