"Estonia, which shares close cultural and linguistic ties with Finland. Besides, Hungary with shared Finno-Ugric descents, as well as other Baltic nations such as Latvia have gained votes from Finland, and the other way around. In 2004, Finland's first-place vote went to Sweden; in 2005, it contributed 12 points to Norway; in 2006, it was Russia's turn to get the 12 points, but it was Serbia who got their top score in 2007. The first time in Eurovision history that Sweden gave Finland 12 points was in 2006 for Lordi's song ""Hard Rock Hallelujah."" In 2007, they repeated this, giving"
"entered numerous times but without victories. Every year from 2001 to 2008 inclusive, a country won for its first time. Estonia was the first post-Soviet country to win the competition in 2001. In 2003, Turkey won for the first time. In 2005, won for the first time, 15 years after the last Southern European country won, i.e. in 1990; overall the South of Europe won the competition only six times (seven if Serbia is included). The 2006 winner was 's Lordi, earning Finland's first win after having entered the contest for 45 years. , on the other hand, did not"
"voting rights at the second semi-final. Spain and France each broadcast only the semi-final in which they participated; Germany, Serbia and the UK screened both semi-finals (with Germany broadcasting on a delay). The finalists were: The final was held on 24 May 2008 and was won by Russia. The voting order and spokespersons during the final were as follows: Below is a summary of all 12 points in the first semi-final: Below is a summary of all 12 points in the second semi-final: Below is a summary of all 12 points in the final: The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first"
"countries. For example, San Marino holds the same voting power as Russia despite the vast geographic and population differences between them. To try to reduce the effect of voting blocs, national juries were re-introduced alongside televoting in the final in 2009: each contributing 50% of the vote. This hybrid system was expanded in 2010 to also be implemented in the semi-finals. However, since 1994 no country has won two years in a row, and semi-finals have also been won by different countries, until 2012 when Sweden won the second semi-final in 2011 and 2012. Although many of them used to"
"teams were selected for the 2009 installment: Morocco, Belgium and Catalonia. Russia won the 2008 tournament, which was expected to hinge on the Russia-Lebanon game. However, many of the Lebanese players could not obtain visas to travel to Russia in time for the match. This resulted in one-sided scoreline in Russia's favour and handed them the tournament. In 2009, the RLEF announced that Russia, Lebanon and Serbia would be promoted to a revamped European Nations Cup. The Euro-Med Challenge was therefore contested by three new teams in 2009 – Belgium and Catalonia, who made their competitive debuts, and Morocco. Belgium"
"was inspired by Belgrade's location at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers. Serbia gained the right to host the Contest after Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland. Since Serbia was the winner of the preceding contest, the 2008 contest was subsequently held there. The Belgrade Arena was chosen as the venue for the contest, and is among the largest indoor arenas in Europe, with a total capacity of 25,000 seats. On 14 September 2007, the Mayor of Helsinki handed over the ""Eurovision keys"" to the Deputy of Belgrade. This ceremony is meant to be a"
"from the beginning and a couple of years into the new millennium. Until the Finnish gold in Riga 2005, Sweden had won all Team World Championships, until 2006 only Swedes had won the Open Swedish Masters, and until 2007 all individual world champions were Swedes. But the new generation comes from Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Latvia, Canada, Denmark, USA, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Norway, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia and Lithuania, and its current big star is Maxim Borisov from Russia who is the reigning World and European champion. Borisov has been ranked #1 in the world since December 2013. Since the"
"over Russia. The 2012 tournament was held in Sweden and Finland. Russia beat Slovakia in the final, while the Czech Republic beat Finland in the bronze medal game. In 2013, Switzerland finished the preliminary round undefeated before losing the gold medal game 5–1 to co-hosts Sweden. Switzerland's silver medal was the first for the nation since 1953. Sweden's gold made them the first team to win the tournament at home since the Soviet Union in 1986. The 2014 was held for the first time in independent Belarus in spite of concerns of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the authoritarian"
"had the title spelled out in its entirety (as ""Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"") instead of being abbreviated as it has been in previous years (as ""FYR Macedonia""). Participating countries in a Eurovision Song Contest must be active members of the EBU. The semi-final was held on 18 May 2006 at 21:00 (CET). 23 countries performed and all 37 participants and Serbia & Montenegro voted. ""Shaded countries qualified for the Eurovision Final"" Notes The finalists were: The final was held on 20 May 2006 at 21:00 (CET) and was won by Finland. ""Countries in bold automatically qualified for the Eurovision"
"2007 Slovenian entries. Thirty-seven countries participated in one of the two semi-finals of the contest. The semi-final allocation draw took place on 30 January 2009, while the draw for the running order was held on 16 March 2009. The finalists were: The final took place in Moscow on 16 May at 23:00 MST (19:00 UTC) and was won by Norway. They received points from every voting country (lowest score was 2 points from Bulgaria) and led the vote from the beginning to the end. Norway also got 35 nations' top 3 scores (no less than 8 points). In this year's"
"Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA, Uzbekistan. Previous winners of the Festival contest were: Nebojša Cvetković (Serbia, 2003); Maja Veselinović (Serbia, 2004); Mijat Mijatović (Serbia, 2005); Miroslav Marić (Serbia, 2006); Siniša Banović / Dejan Vujić (Serbia, 2007); Alem Ćurin (Croatia, 2008); Marian Mirescu / Cristian Ioan Pacurariu (Romania, 2009); Tihomir Čelanović (Serbia, 2010); Marko Stojanović / Jovan Ukropina (Serbia, 2011); Aleksa Gajić (Serbia, 2012), Miloš Slavković (2013), Dragana Stojiljković and Dražen Kovačević (Serbia, 2014), Nenad Pejčić and Igor Krstić (Serbia, 2015), Daniele Giardini (Italy) and Jelena Đorđević (Serbia, 2016), Darko Macan and Fran Strukan (Croatia, 2017)"
"in Sochi, Russia, and retained the same game format used in Vancouver 2010, while returning to the larger international-sized ice rinks. Slovenia participated for the first time, upsetting Slovakia in the round-robin before losing to Sweden in the quarterfinals 0–5, for its best finish in any international tournament. Latvia upset Switzerland 3–1 in the qualification playoffs, also making it to the Olympic quarterfinals for the first time, where they were narrowly defeated by Canada 2–1. Host nation Russia, considered a pre-tournament favourite, lost 3–1 in the quarterfinals to Finland and finished 5th. Entering the semi-finals undefeated after outscoring opponents 20–6,"
"rise culminated with their first title in 2009; with four further titles since, Russia equalled Spain and Portugal's record tally of titles, and at least finishing in the top four every season since 2007, the Russians have cemented their position as a superpower. During this period Portugal have continued to be a dominant side, having added another two titles to their haul, whilst Switzerland and Ukraine have claimed their maiden crowns. On the other hand, this era has seen the demise of nations like France, who saw relegation to Division B in 2010 and again 2012, meanwhile Spain have only"
"a rematch of the 2006 FIBA World Championship semifinal. Many predicted that this matchup – between world number one Argentina and defending champion Spain – could be for the final before the tournament. Russia will face Slovenia in the seventh place game. Russia ended their World Championship campaign with a victory after beating Slovenia 83–78. Slovenia outplayed Russia in a sloppy first half that included only four total points in the first five minutes of the second quarter. Slovenia used a late 7–0 run to lead 37–30 at halftime. Slovenia opened up the second half with a quick run to"
"the Soviet Union in the 1989 World Championships. The Czech Republic captured the bronze medal by defeating co-host Finland 3–2 in the bronze medal game. The tournament's top scorer, Russia's Evgeni Malkin, was named the most valuable player of the tournament. At the IIHF congress in Moscow in 2007 four nations submitted bids to host the 2012 World Championship: Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The Hungarian and Czech bids were withdrawn before the vote, which was then contested by Finland and Sweden. Finland won with 64 votes to Sweden's 35. Sweden later won the vote to host the"
"of Ronny Swiggers, Nico Pattyn, Erik Derycke, and Tom Trogh, but rebounded in 2009. In 2011 Finland became the third team to win the title, beating Norway in the final. The deciding question after the long and even match with tough questions was about a very common Nordic plant ""Hepatica"". Both teams failed to answer correctly and Finland won. So far five countries have won medals: England, Belgium, Finland, Norway and Estonia. After the first years the event was dominated by two British teams. Since 2007 the questions have been set by a team of quizmasters from different nationalities, in"
"Eurovision Song Contest 2008 The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Belgrade, Serbia, following Marija Šerifović's win at the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland with the song ""Molitva"". This year was the first time there were three contests; two semi-finals which were held on 20 and 22 May, and the traditional grand final which was held on 24 May 2008. The shows were hosted by Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović at the Belgrade Arena which had a total capacity of 25,000 seats. The host broadcaster was RTS. After"
"were replaced by Italy in September and then Argentina in October. In July 2008, Spain took over the lead for the first time, having won UEFA Euro 2008. Brazil began a sixth stint at the top of the rankings in July 2009 after winning the 2009 Confederations Cup, and Spain regained the title in November 2009 after winning every match in qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In April 2010, Brazil returned to the top of the table. After winning the 2010 World Cup, Spain regained the top position and held it until August 2011, when the Netherlands reached"
"medal in the tournament since 2006. They played their previous final in 2001 against the Czech Republic, in which Finland lost 2–1. Finland had previously won two gold medals, their first in 1987, and their second in 1998 by defeating Russia in the final 2–1. Finland lost two games in the regulation round, one against Sweden in regulation time and one against Switzerland in a shootout. In the previous tournament, Finland failed to reach the playoffs and ended up in the relegation round. This was the first final between the two teams. Sweden defeated Finland in the regulation round 4–2."
"two consecutive European Championships, and also three straight major tournaments (Euro 2008, 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012). Spain had already gained entry to the 2013 Confederations Cup by winning the 2010 World Cup, so runners-up Italy qualified instead. As at Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, both 2012 host nations were eliminated in the group stage. The hosting of the event was initially contested by five bids representing seven countries: Croatia–Hungary, Greece, Italy, Poland–Ukraine, and Turkey. In November 2005, after an initial consideration of the bid data by UEFA, both the Greek and Turkish bids were eliminated from the"
"points earned from the previous four years. 2008 Fed Cup The 2008 Fed Cup was the 46th edition of the most important competition between national teams in women's tennis. The final took place at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, on 13–14 September. The home team, Spain, lost to the defending champion Russia, 0–4, giving Russia their fourth title in five years. The four losing teams in the World Group first round ties (France, Germany, Israel and Italy), and four winners of the World Group II ties (Argentina, Czech Republic, Japan and Ukraine) entered the draw"
"to achieve international success include Anna Chakvetadze, Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Myskina, Nadia Petrova, Vera Zvonareva and Anna Kournikova. The Russian Federation has won the Fed Cup 4 times, in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Russia swept the women's tennis podium with Elena Dementieva winning the gold, Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva the silver and bronze, respectively. As of 5 October 2009, four Russian women were ranked in the WTA tour's top 10. Russia also boasts two former number 1 men's players—Safina's older brother Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Russian men currently in the"
"the 16th team, but in 2007 and 2008 Serbia replaced it as the 17th nation sending a team to play in it, and became the first non-former Soviet Union nation participating in the tournament. Unlike the rest of the states, who send their latest champions to play in the tournament, Serbia has sent OFK Beograd to play in the tournament. In its first years the tournament was popular in the territories of the former Soviet Union, including the most titled teams from the old Soviet Top League. Spartak Moscow from Russia, and Dynamo Kyiv from Ukraine each won the cup"
"24, 2006 August 19, 2006 August 20, 2006 August 22, 2006 August 23, 2006 August 24, 2006 August 19, 2006 August 20, 2006 August 22, 2006 August 23, 2006 August 24, 2006 Venue: Saitama Super Arena Since the inaugural competition one of the two teams competing for the title had been either the USA or Yugoslavia. After the latter's breakup, a Former Yugoslav Republic, Serbia, has taken its place in the final. The 2006 final was the first (and only, up to 2014) in which none of these two teams competed. The final was an unexpectedly one-sided affair, with Spain"
"favored Russia (which won in both 2002 and 2006, and was the top-ranked country in Davis Cup standings, with 27,897 points) in a Davis Cup quarterfinal tie in July 2009, on indoor hard courts at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. Israel was represented by Sela, Harel Levy, Jonathan Erlich, and Andy Ram. Russia's lineup consisted of Marat Safin (#60 in the world; former world #1), Igor Andreev (24), Igor Kunitsyn (35), and Mikhail Youzhny (69; former world #8). Sela said before the tie: ""We feel we can beat the Russians."" The stage was then set by Safin, who prior"
"once. The top two teams went to the Cup stage of the tournament while the third and fourth placed team qualified for the Plate stage. Five and six went to the Bowl finals. Three separate rounds of finals were held, Bowl, the lowest, Plate and Cup. The semi final winners of each group went on to the final while the losers played each other. All teams from the Cup stage were qualified for the next sevens world cup and also the Plate winner. Winner: Russia Winner: Italy ""(qualified for the 2009 Sevens world cup)"" Winner: Portugal ""(all four teams qualified"
"the Slovenian team. With the victory, Turkey became the first host team to reach the final four since Greece advanced to the semifinals at the 1998 FIBA World Championship in Athens. The Turks also assured themselves of their best ever performance at the World Championship. Slovenia improved upon 2006's eighth final performance, reaching the quarterfinals in their second ever World Championship appearance. The United States and Russia reignited their rivalry in the quarterfinals on the thirty-eighth anniversary of the Soviet Union's gold medal victory over the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics. On this occasion, the Americans prevailed, winning"
"October, and the competing teams were England, Finland, Czech Republic, Andorra, Croatia, France, Scotland, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Spain, Ireland and the EU Crusaders. In the final, England defeated Netherlands. The 2008 event was held in Prague, Czech Republic on the weekend of 11 and 12 October, and the competing teams were England, Finland, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Catalonia, The Netherlands, Scotland, Croatia, Sweden, Austria and the EU Crusaders. In the final, England defeated Croatia 107-59. The 2007 event was held in Hamburg, Germany on the weekend of 15 and 16 September, and was won by Sweden who"
"championship in Bern, the Russian team confirmed its title, again defeating the national team of Canada in the final with a score of 2: 1. At the World Cup 2010, held in Cologne, the Russian team took only second place, losing in the finals of the Czech team with a score of 1: 2. In 2012, the Russian team won gold for the fourth time. In 2014, she became a five-time champion, winning all of her matches, like in 2008, 2009 and 2012. In the final match, the Russian team defeated the Finnish national team with a score of 5:"
"members of international Eurovision Song Contest fan club OGAE to select the best video released in their countries. The contest was held in Volgograd, Russia after Yin-Yang won the 2009 contest for Russia with ""Karma"". Twelve countries participated in the contest. Australia entered the contest for the first time, while Luxembourg returned after their absence from the 2009 contest. Estonia, Ireland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine left the contest. The draw for the running order was conducted on 10 October where it was decided that Italy would start the show, while Australia would close it. The contest was won by"
"in 2004, Palma de Mallorca, Spain was the host. From 2005 to 2007, Moscow was the host of the tournament. Hanover held the tournament for the first time in 2008 and did so again in 2009. In 2010, the tournament return to Moscow. In 2011, the format of the competition changed. The twelve best teams meet on several tournaments, following the model of the IRB Sevens World Series. The name also changed, the European Championship was known as Sevens Grand Prix Series. The first edition of this competition was held in 2011 with a victory of Portugal. Sevens Grand Prix"
"2009 IIHF World Championship Final The 2009 IIHF World Championship Final was an ice hockey match that took place on 10 May 2009 at the PostFinance Arena in Bern, Switzerland, to determine the winner of the 2009 IIHF World Championship. Russia defeated Canada 2–1 to win its 3rd championship and its 2nd consecutive championship. This was the second consecutive year that Russia and Canada had met in the final of a World Championship. It was Russia's fourth finals appearance, and they were defending champions having won in 2008, against Canada in a hard-fought 5-4 overtime win. It was Canada's sixth"
"contest had its first semifinal, with a slight change in voting: countries which did not qualify from the semifinal would be allowed to cast votes in the final. This resulted in Ukraine's Ruslana finishing first, with a record 280 points. If the voting had been conducted as it had been from 1956 to 2003 (when only finalist countries could vote), Serbia and Montenegro's Željko Joksimović would have won the contest with 190 points: a 15-point lead over Ruslana, who would have scored 175 points. To date, non-qualifying countries are still allowed to vote in the final. In 2006, Serbia and"