For a young sports reporter, still cutting his teeth in journalism, the prospect of covering the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix seemed like a dream assignment.
A summary of Saturday's UEFA World Cup qualifiers.
Switzerland may get a taste of their own medicine on Saturday when they meet an Albania side featuring several players who benefited from the highly-acclaimed Swiss youth set-up. Loyalties will be divided in a fascinating Group A clash which, for the first time in the European Championship, will have brothers on opposing sides in Granit and Taulant Xhaka. Both are of Albanian heritage and were born in Basel but Granit will line up for Switzerland and older brother Taulant, provided he recovers from a thigh injury, for their opponents. In all, nine members of Albania's 23-man squad had the right to play for Switzerland, and six members of the Swiss squad could have opted for Albania.
Former World Cup silver medalist Seema Tomar of India missed out a podium finish and finished fifth in women's trap event at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in San Marino on Friday. Australia's Emma Elizabeth Cox won the gold medal, USA's Corey Cogdell bagged silver while Carole Cormenier of France clinched the bronze in the women's trap event. The former Asian Airgun gold medallist had qualified for the first competition stage semi-final but could not get into the shoot-off. In the men's trap, Prithviraj Tondaiman was placed 16th after shooting rounds of 23 and 24 and will shoot the remaining three series on Saturday. On the opening day of qualification, Manavjit Singh Sandhu (73rd) shot 23 and 21, while Kynan Chenai (36th) had 23 and 23.
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Former world number one Heena Sidhu missed out on qualifying for the final of women's 10-metre air pistol event by just one point on the concluding day of the ISSF World Cup in Munich on Wednesday. At the Olympic Shooting Centre, Heena finished 12th out of 104 shooters in the eventual standings but would have been pleased at having shot a higher score than 384 ahead of the all-important Rio Olympics. The eighth finalist from Serbia, who eventually won the gold, made it through with a score of 385 and had less inner 10s than Heena. Shweta Singh and Shri Nivetha Paramanantham, the other Indians in the event shot 378 and 377 to finish 47th and 52nd respectively. Serbia's Bobana Velickovic won the gold in the event, while Sonia Franquet of Spain bagged the silver and China's Mengxue Zhang won the bronze medal.
The home ministry will extend e-tourist visa scheme to 37 more countries from Friday, taking the total number of beneficiary countries to 150.
Having waltzed through the qualifying process for their last two major tournaments Spain find themselves in an undignified tangle at the halfway point on the road to the World Cup in Brazil.
England face a central defensive problem heading into their next two World Cup qualifiers which should not matter against San Marino on Friday but could well cause worries against Montenegro next Tuesday.
Midfielder Frank Lampard and defender Ryan Bertrand have been ruled out of England's 2014 World Cup qualifier against Poland in Warsaw through injury, the FA said in a statement on Sunday.
Chelsea defender Ashley Cole was charged by the Football Association (FA) on Monday over his foul-mouthed Twitter rant against the governing body.
San Marino rider Alex de Angelis was airlifted to hospital after a heavy crash during final practice at the Japanese MotoGP on Saturday before a dramatic qualifying session saw Jorge Lorenzo grab pole from title rival Valentino Rossi.
Manchester United's Luke Shaw is set to undergo a second operation on Friday after breaking his right leg in two places in Tuesday's 2-1 loss to PSV Eindhoven, according to British media reports.
Wayne Rooney became England's all-time record scorer when he smashed home his 50th international goal from the penalty spot as England beat Switzerland 2-0 in their Euro 2016 Group E qualifier at Wembley on Tuesday.
England qualified for Euro 2016 after crushing San Marino 6-0 on Saturday, with Wayne Rooney equalling Bobby Charlton's all-time scoring record of 49 goals for his country.
Spain and Italy were placed in the same qualifying group for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, as were the Netherlands and France, but holders Germany were handed a kinder campaign with the Czech Republic their chief rivals in the draw made on Saturday.
Lewis Hamilton will have a chance to equal his childhood hero Ayrton Senna's tally of three world titles. It is a goal that has the Englishman giddy with excitement.
Retired seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher was in 'critical' condition with head injuries after an off-piste skiing accident in the French Alps resort of Meribel, his agent said on Sunday.
Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard scored to send England to the World Cup finals with a 2-0 victory over Poland on Tuesday that gave them top spot in qualifying Group H on a thrilling and nervy night at Wembley.
Ukraine have been ordered to play their next home 2014 World Cup qualifying match against Poland behind closed doors due to the racist behaviour of their fans, FIFA said on Friday.
Yamaha's Valentino Rossi consolidated his MotoGP championship lead on Sunday by cruising to his seventh consecutive Italian Grand Prix win. Italian Rossi, winner of the preceding races in France and China, recovered from a sluggish start from pole to take the lead within four laps.
England's Rio Ferdinand has quit international soccer, the Football Association (FA) said on Wednesday.
Rio Ferdinand is shocked by the allegation England fans sang racist songs about him and his brother Anton during the 8-0 World Cup qualifying victory in San Marino, the Manchester United defender said on Friday.
England have been reported to world governing body FIFA after racist abuse was heard from visiting fans at last week's World Cup qualifier in San Marino.
World champions Spain were held by lowly Finland but there were wins for England, Germany, France and Netherlands as Europe's top teams returned to the task of qualifying for next year's World Cup finals on Friday.
Roy Hodgson will wait to see if defender Rio Ferdinand has an international future after he withdrew from the squad for the next two World Cup qualifiers, the England manager said.
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was recalled to the England squad by manager Roy Hodgson on Thursday for this month's World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Montenegro.
Images from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers matches.
England forward Theo Walcott has been ruled out of their World Cup qualifier in Poland on Tuesday with a chest injury, the FA said.
Chelsea defender Ashley Cole has apologised to English Football Association chairman David Bernstein for a Twitter insult he aimed at the FA last week and is free to play for England against San Marino on Friday.
England coach Roy Hodgson gave Celtic's tall goalkeeper Fraser Forster a first international call-up when he named the 24-year-old in his squad for this month's World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Poland.
The Swiss lawyer heading up a committee charged with reforming the structure and management of world soccer body FIFA says major changes to the organization's voting structure and imposing term limits on executive committee members will be difficult to achieve in the short term.
An 'overwhelmed' Lewis Hamilton hoped to inspire others with his achievements, just as Ayrton Senna has fired his imagination as a boy, after celebrating the greatest day of his career with a third Formula One world title.
'I watched Senna as a child and it would be an honour to match him. Now I'm just one win away but I hope to do even better'
Images and summary of all the World Cup 2022 qualifiers played across continents on Tuesday.
Formula One world champions past and present paid their respects to Jules Bianchi and mourned one of their own at the French driver's funeral on Tuesday.
Formula One World champion Sebastian Vettel drove his new Red Bull for the first time on Thursday with the team saying they were on course to tick all the right boxes in pre-season testing at Jerez.
In the book, 'Where Borders Bleed: An Insider's Account of Indo-Pak Relations', Rajiv Dogra says that a judge had told him of this.
Brazilian Bruno Senna will race for Williams this season, following in the footsteps of his late uncle and triple world champion Ayrton who died in one of the Formula One team's cars at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
The Toyota driver was ordered to add a half second penalty to his Monaco Grand Prix aggregate qualifying time after a tyre error in free practice.
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