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Sportshour

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Live Saturday morning global sports show with reports, debate and humour

Live Saturday morning global sports show with reports, debate and humour.

Sportshour: A Right Champagne Charlie

A Right Champagne Charlie

18/04/2015

BBC World Service - Sportshour, A Right Champagne Charlie

Perils of a podium hostess. How doing your job can put you in the eye of a media storm

Last week in celebrating winning the Chinese Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton sprayed champagne liberally on the winner’s podium and in the process directly in the face of one of the podium hostesses. It thrust Liu Siying, who says she wasn't offended, into a media storm. So what is that like? We speak to Maja Leye who in 2013 had her bottom pinched by cyclist Peter Sagan whilst presenting flowers to the winner of the Tour of Flanders. She explains how that event changed her life.

The Cost of Caracas Baseball
This week the Summit of the America's saw further warming of relations between Cuba and America. One of the benefits has been on Cuban baseball. However, fortunes are not so rosy for the sport in Venezuela, another of the countries at the summit. Deadly protests and crippling product shortages have made Venezuela one of the most dangerous and unstable places in the world.  We’re in Caracas where most of the American Major League academies have been closed, in turn damaging their national sport.

The Lasting Legacy of Benaud
The death of Richie Benaud has prompted renewed calls to tackle the issue of skin cancer amongst cricketers at all levels of the game. We speak to former Australian international Ashley Noffke who recovered from the condition. His diagnosis came more by luck than judgment and the worry is that more and more cricketers are putting their lives at risk playing the sport they love.

Tackling Dressing Room Depression
We look at the new initiatives around the world that are aimed at helping sportsmen to deal with depression. We hear from sport stars from various sports who have tried to commit suicide and to one manager who makes a special effort to look after the mental welfare of his players knowing first-hand the devastating effect of depression in the dressing room.

The Real Power of Netball 
Hopes are high that a new record crowd for an English domestic netball match will be achieved this weekend, but the sport is not just growing in the UK. Netball is mainly the preserve of Commonwealth countries and is unusual in that only women compete at the highest level of the game. It's this empowerment that has meant that the sport is growing in some of the less traditional netball playing countries around the world... Including Ethiopia.

Never Lose a Grand National Bet Again. Maybe?
As we watched our tips in the Grand National last week fall by the wayside it got us thinking... How do owners spot a winning horse when they come up for sale as foals? We investigate. 

Rucking with Rugby’s Ruling Class
After an absence of 92 years, rugby union will once again return to the Olympic Games in its shortened form "Sevens". A number of less traditional rugby playing nations are bidding to be involved. Like Rwanda, who have been experiencing something of a rugby revolution! We went to meet them.

Sporting Witness… Judit Polgar – Greatest Chesswoman in History.  After defeating a chess grandmaster at the tender age of 11, Judit Polgar became one herself aged only 15 – younger even than the great Bobby Fischer. The Hungarian talks about her unconventional childhood and her extraordinary career.

Photo: (L) Race winner Fabian Cancellara stands on top of the podium as Peter Sagan pinches the bottom of podium hostess Maja Leye on the 97th Tour of Flanders March 2013 (Credit: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) Photo (R) Race winner Lewis Hamilton celebrates on the podium during the Formula One Grand Prix of China April 12 2015 (Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images)

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