Latvians in sport: Erbs wins shooting world title, late goal sinks Latvia in Montenegro (12 November)

Thursday’s best result came from Doha, where Ernests Erbs won the 25m centre-fire pistol at the shooting world championships with 588 points out of 600. In Riga, the women’s floorball team thrashed France 22-3 and are one win away from the world championship, while the football team lost in stoppage time in Podgorica after Deniss Meļņiks scored his first goal for his country.

Shooting

• Ernests Erbs (world championships, Doha, 25m centre-fire pistol): gold with 588 points (293 + 295), ahead of India’s Ankur Goel on 583. Lauris Strautmanis finished 20th and Emīls Vasermanis 28th; Latvia were fifth in the team event.

Football

• Latvia (UEFA Nations League, League C): lost 2-1 in Montenegro. Nikola Krstović put the hosts ahead in the 70th minute, Deniss Meļņiks equalised two minutes later from an Andrejs Cigaņiks corner, and Aleksa Maraš scored the winner in the 91st minute. Latvia had an extra player but will finish bottom of the group; they host Armenia in Riga on Sunday in their last game.

Ice hockey

• Zemgus Girgensons (Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL): 21 minutes 32 seconds on the ice, his most since 2015, and four hits but no points as Tampa Bay won 3-1 in Columbus.
• Sandis Vilmanis (Florida Panthers): back in the line-up after missing two games, 13 minutes, no points; Florida came from three goals down to beat Detroit 5-4. Uvis Balinskis did not play.
• Teodors Bļugers (Toronto Maple Leafs): an assist on Zack MacEwen’s goal, but Toronto lost 5-2 at home to Minnesota.
• Switzerland: Rūdolfs Balcers had two assists as the ZSC Lions won 4-3 in a shoot-out in Biel, their 18th win in 19 games.
• Norway and Sweden: Leonards Rimjānis scored twice as Nidaros of Trondheim beat league leaders Vålerenga 4-0; Markuss Komuls played for HV71 for the first time since September in a 4-2 defeat by Luleå.
• Latvian Hockey League, which includes a Vilnius club: Rīgas HS/Dinaburga won 4-2 at Hockey Punks in Vilnius, with goals from Edgars Ablaževičs and Ņikita Soskovecs among others.

Floorball

• Women (world championship qualifying, Riga): Latvia beat France 22-3, with six goals and eight points from Simona Grāpēna and five assists from Emīlija Salaciete.
• Under-19s (Polish Open, Poland): lost 6-3 to the Czech Republic, with two goals from Gvido Griezītis.

Basketball and tennis

• Dāvis Bertāns was left out of Dubai’s squad on his 34th birthday, and Olympiacos won the EuroLeague game 101-72.
• Roberts Bērziņš (KR Reykjavík, Iceland): a season-high 23 points as KR beat Höttur 112-92 to stay unbeaten after six games.
• Tennis: Beatrise Zeltiņa reached the quarter-finals of an ITF event in Paris, beating Ando Ratri 6-4, 6-2, and Marija Lauva beat Yuliya Stamatova 6-2, 7-5 in Antalya.

At home

• Bobsleigh: Dāvis Kaufmanis and Edgars Ungurs won the Latvian two-man championship in Sigulda, 0.02 seconds ahead of Jēkabs Kalenda and Matīss Miknis.
• Volleyball: the Liepāja sports school team beat RSU 3-1 again and will face champions Robežsardze/RSU in the Latvian Cup semi-finals.
• Handball: Jēkabpils SS women won 40-21 in Salaspils, with 15 goals from Vivita Puķinska.

Playing today

• Floorball: the women play Denmark in the deciding group game of the qualifying tournament in Riga (19:00 Riga time), and the under-19s face Norway in Poland (20:00).
• Ice hockey: Kristaps Zīle’s Liberec visit Třinec (18:00), Gustavs Dāvis Grigals’s SaiPa host Ilves (18:30), and Rodrigo Ābols’s SC Bern play Fribourg-Gottéron (20:45).
• Basketball, Latvian-Estonian league: Ogre host Keila (19:00).
• Tennis, overnight into Saturday: Jeļena Ostapenko and Hsieh Su-wei face Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani at the WTA Finals (around 01:00).

Every game involving Latvians today and over the coming days, plus season statistics, is on the Latvians abroad page.