■ Cricket
Warne ready for action
Australia leg spinner Shane Warne, banned for a year after a positive drugs test, will return to the national side today for a warm-up match against a Sri Lanka President's XI. Warne, 34, missed last year's World Cup after he was suspended for taking a diuretic. He was recalled to the Australia side for their tour of Sri Lanka after one first class match. "It's good to have him back around us again," captain Ricky Ponting told reporters yesterday. "Everyone understands that it has been a pretty tough 12 months for him. He has worked exceptionally hard, looks in great shape and is apparently bowling very well. He is one of the all-time greats and if you can slot those kind of guys back into your side then you will have a bit more of an aura when you take the field."
■ Soccer
Goalkeeper dies in match
Guatemala international goalkeeper Danny Ortiz died Sunday after colliding with an opponent during a Guatemalan league soccer match. Ortiz, who was playing for Municipal, crashed into Comunicaciones forward Mario Rodriguez, suffering a hard blow to the chest that left him briefly unconscious on the field. The 27-year-old was taken to a hospital, where he was said to be in stable condition, but he later died. "Unfortunately, his heart did not respond," said team physician Dr. Jorge Jerez in a joint news conference with hospital doctors. Comunicaciones won the match between Guatemala's two most popular clubs 2-0. Ortiz debuted in the first division in 1998, and also played for Comunicaciones. Two years ago, Municipal player Johnny Aldana died during a training session.
■ Motor racing
Hornish wins Indy 300
The IRL season opener turned into a Penske shootout, with newcomer Sam Hornish passing teammate Helio Castroneves on the last lap to win Sunday's Toyota Indy 300. "I just got the right move at the right time," said Hornish, a two-time IndyCar Series champion and now a three-time winner in four tries at Homestead Miami Speedway. The 200-lap race on the 2.4km oval was filled with passing and two- and three-wide racing that kept fans on their feet. Castroneves recalled that Hornish passed him on the outside on the last lap of the 2002 season at Texas to take away the series championship. "I said, `This guy's not going to beat me on the outside,"' Castroneves said. "If I let him go on the outside, I would not sleep today. Unfortunately, he beat me on the inside anyway."
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