■Ice Hockey
Fuhr enters Hall of Fame
Goaltender Grant Fuhr entered the Hockey Hall of Fame on Wednesday, culminating a career in which he won four Stanley Cups with Edmonton. Fuhr, the first black in the hockey hall, was joined Wednesday by forward Pat LaFontaine, Detroit Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch and junior team coach Brian Kilrea. Fuhr starred on the Oilers' championship teams of the 1980s and helped Canada win the Canada Cup tournament in 1987. He was a first team all-star and Vezina Trophy winner in 1988. "He was a great goalie, one of the best in the 80s," said Glen Sather, who coached Fuhr in Edmonton and is now general manager of the Rangers. "He played on an offensive team and had the ability to win games when the team had to win.
■ Football
Fake ticket dealer pleads
A man caught at the US-Canadian border with 232 phony Super Bowl tickets pleaded guilty Wednesday to trafficking in counterfeit goods. Charles Ware of Cleveland was arrested at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge on Jan. 24, two days before the Super Bowl. Federal prosecutors said Ware had been scheduled to fly under an alias later that day to San Diego, where the game was played. Each ticket had a face value of US$400. Ware and a second suspect, Jermaine McGowan, of Euclid, Ohio, were attempting to enter the US when they were referred for a secondary inspection. In addition to the fake tickets, US customs officers found one original Super Bowl ticket that could have been the source for the counterfeit ones, authorities said. Ware fled on foot and was later captured by state troopers on nearby Grand Island. He could receive up to 10 years in prison and a fine of US$2 million when he is sentenced Oct. 30.
Agencies
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later