Sports Round-Up: Veerpalu's Successful Return
In a further humiliation to Estonian winter athletes, 43-year-old Andrus Veerpalu came out of retirement for 40 minutes to claim a gold medal at the Estonian 15 kilometer cross-country championships on Saturday.
The double Olympic gold-medalist beat Karel Tammjärv (24 years old) and Peeter Kümmel (31) by 17 and 40 seconds respectively, finishing with a time of 36:39. Tammjärv and Kümmel both competed at the recent winter Olympics, without much success.
The gold medal was his 25th from Estonian championships, but Veerpalu added he has no plans to return to professional sport.
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The Estonian top football league brought no surprises in the third round over the weekend, but plenty of goals.
A total of 26 goals were scored in the five matches, including FC Flora's 3-0 victory over Tartu Tammeka, which keeps them in first place as the only team with maximum points.
Levadia scores eight unanswered goals against Tallinna Kalev in the highest scoring match while Nõmme Kalju beat Paide 6-0 and Narva Trans handed league new-comer Jõhvi Lokomotiv a 5-0 thrashing.
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Estonia's top young tennis player, Anett Kontaveit, has broken into the top 200 in WTA rankings for the first time.
She is now placed 196th, while Kaia Kanepi is 25th. Eva Paalma is the third Estonian in the ranking, occupying the 997th spot.
Kontaveit only left the junior rankings in the second half of last year.