The International Cycling Union blasted the World Anti-Doping Agency on Wednesday for leaking a confidential Tour de France report and vowed to exclude the agency from upcoming races. \nThe UCI was furious it didn't get the chance to study and amend "certain inaccurate points" in the report before it was leaked to the press and published in Monday's edition of the French sports daily L'Equipe. \n"The UCI observes once more that these information leaks are absolutely unacceptable, often originate from France, and always take cycling as a privileged target," the body said in a statement. \n"The UCI is not willing to tolerate similar situations anymore.'' \nIt demanded WADA open an official investigation into the origin of the leak. \n"You don't publish a confidential document," UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani said. \n"We want to know the reasons documents are continually being leaked and most regularly in France." \nA WADA statement issued Wednesday denied the agency leaked the report, saying it was provided to stakeholders as a courtesy before the official release expected today. \nWADA said its director general, David Howman, condemned the leaking of the report and had spoken to UCI president Hein Verbruggen. \n"We share UCI's concerns over the leaks to the media and we will work with them and our other partners, such as the French Ministry for Sport, to make sure that those responsible are identified," Howman said. \nUCI noted that WADA apologized but said its confidence in the agency had been dented. \n"Until this is resolved WADA will not be invited to any UCI cycling races," Carpani said. "For now there will be no more WADA observers." \nWADA president Dick Pound, who also is a senior IOC member, said future cooperation was crucial to combatting drug use in cycling. \n"We want to continue to work with UCI to reduce the impact of performance-enhancing drugs in that sport," Pound said. \n"I am confident we can work together again at future Tours." \nUCI was angered by observations in the report that riders have time to cheat when they are notified of being tested.
Two women yesterday morning attempted to hang a banner from the Acropolis in Athens in protest at the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics, but were detained by Greek police. The women, 18-year-old Tibetan student Tsela Zoksang and 22-year-old exiled Hong Konger Joey Siu (邵嵐), both US citizens, are members of the “No Beijing 2022” campaign, a statement from the New York-based organization Students for a Free Tibet said. They, and a third person, entered the archeological site as paying customers, and then Zoksang and Siu climbed some scaffolding, from which they attempted to unfurl the banner. A security officer rushed to them and took
TREBLE CHANCE: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei is eyeing a third title in the California desert after winning in 2014 with Peng Shuai and in 2018 with Barbora Strycova Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Thursday cruised into the women’s doubles final at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. It took second seeds Hsieh and Mertens just 54 minutes to defeat Japanese third seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara 6-2, 6-0 in the semi-finals to advance to their second final as a duo. Hsieh and Mertens denied the Japanese duo, winners of a WTA Tour-best five titles this year, a spot in their sixth final of the season as they broke serve five times and won the final nine games. “We’re very happy about the performance. Just
It is the world’s longest certified foot race: a 4,989km run that takes participants around the same New York block 5,649 times. Thousands of people have climbed Everest — but just 49 have completed the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race, organizers say. Runners finish more than two marathons a day for almost two months, on less than five hours of sleep a night. They cannot rely on changing scenery to keep them motivated as the route is a 883m loop on a concrete sidewalk around a high school in Jamaica, Queens. To mix things up a bit, they alternate between running clockwise
Sean Wainui, a rising star of Super Rugby with the Hamilton, New Zealand-based Chiefs, died yesterday in an automobile accident. He was 25 and the father of two children. His death was confirmed by family members and by New Zealand Rugby, which said “one of New Zealand Rugby’s tallest Totara trees has fallen.” Wainui played 44 matches for the Chiefs from 2018. He also played nine times for the Christchurch-based Crusaders and was a New Zealand Maori representative from 2015. Wainui scored five tries for the Chiefs against the New South Wales Waratahs in June, a Super Rugby record. Police said they were notified
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