Soccer-TSK-Tavriya win first edition of Crimean championship

By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy MOSCOW, May 15 (Reuters) - TSK-Tavriya captured the first ever Crimean championship on Sunday after they beat Bakhchisaray 3-1 to clinch the title. The eight-team league was created after the Russian Federation annexed Crimea in 2014, which meant clubs from the peninsula could no longer compete in the Ukrainian league. TSK-Tavriya, who are based in Simferopol, have 59 points. They lead second-placed SKChF Sevastopol by nine points which allowed them to wrap up the title with three games to spare. Tavriya also had the honour of winning the first independent Ukrainian title in 1992. TSK-Tavriya was one of three Crimea-based teams that played in Russia's second division for several months following the annexation. However, in December 2014 UEFA banned such teams from Russian competition and declared Crimea a "special zone" -- which led to the creation of the new championship. (Reporting By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy, editing by Pritha Sarkar)