In Brief
Bourousis decides to stay on at Olympiakos Greece forward Yiannis Bourousis has agreed to continue his career at the Olympiakos basketball team. After four meetings and some 20 hours of negotiations, the two sides finally reached a deal last weekend that will fetch Bourousis about 2 million euros a year, including bonuses. Giorgos Printezis is also likely to stay on at Olympiakos, although his negotiations with the Piraeus club have not yet borne fruit. Lithuanian sensation Sarunas Jasikevicius is also likely to extend his stay at Panathinaikos, after his negotiations with the coach of the European champions, Zeljko Obradovic. New coaching change on national rugby team The reign of Nikos Petropoulos as Greece’s national rugby coach has ended after the rugby federation admitted that it has begun the search for a replacement. «It was a very difficult decision,» Costas Tsampaos, head of development at the Hellenic Rugby Federation, told the sportingreece.com website. Since first taking its international bow in 2005, Greece has played a total of 12 internationals. Petropoulos was the sixth coach and, with four games at the helm, the longest-serving so far. Larissa in Europe KR Reykjavik will be Larissa’s first opponent in soccer’s Europa League this summer when the Greek side enters the competition on July 16. The first match will be played in Iceland, with the return scheduled for July 23 in Larissa, according to the draw held on Monday in Switzerland. The Reykjavik side is currently third in the championship in Iceland. It finished fourth last year but won the cup. Volleyball losses A somewhat depleted national volleyball team, due to injuries, suffered two 3-0 losses in Germany, while their hosts enjoyed a couple of easy European League wins last weekend. Germany has now moved to the top of the group standings with two rounds remaining. Handball is out The national handball team lost 32-19 in Hungary and 29-24 to Croatia at home to drop out of the race for a place in the European Championship in 2010. Nevertheless, Greece has always been an underdog in this group and the federation is quite happy with the national team’s performances.
