■ Cycling
Vinokourov wins Stage 4
Alexandre Vinokourov won Thursday's fourth stage at the Dauphine Libere, beating six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong into fourth place. Vinokourov finished the 182km ascent up Frances Mont Ventoux 6 seconds faster than Jose Gomez Marchante and 16 seconds quicker than Wim Van Huffel. Armstrong was 37 seconds behind Vinokourov, who was third at the 2003 Tour de France and -- along with T-Mobile teammate Jan Ullrich -- may be challenging this year. "I'm a little disappointed," said Armstrong, who will retire after the July 2-24 Tour. "I wouldn't say it was great. I wouldn't even say it was good."
■ SOCCER
Mourinho loses appeal
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho lost an appeal on Thursday against a 5,000-pound (7,200 euros) fine for alleging that Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson tried to influence a referee during a match between the teams. Mourinho was charged with improper conduct by the Football Association because of comments he made in a television interview after Jan. 12's 0-0 draw in the first leg of a League Cup semifinal. Mourinho accused Ferguson of talking to and influencing referee Neale Barry at halftime. "The referee controlled the game in one way during the first half but in the second [Manchester United] had dozens of free kicks. It was fault [foul] after fault, dive after dive," he told Chelsea TV at the time. The FA said an appeal board hearing dismissed Mourinho's appeal on Thursday. Mourinho last season coached Chelsea to its first league title since 1955.
■ Football
Ragone, Scanlon MVPs
Berlin Thunder quarterback Dave Ragone and linebacker teammate Rich Scanlon have been named the Most Valuable Players in NFL Europe. The Admirals' Bart Andrus was named coach of the year in the NFL's Europe-based developmental league. The Admirals and Thunder play today in the World Bowl -- the league championship game -- at the LTU Arena in Duesseldorf, Germany. NFL Europe also named its all-league team on Thursday. The Hamburg Sea Devils led with nine selections. Ragone, allocated by the Houston Texans, set an NFL Europe record by throwing 176 passes before yielding an interception.
■ Soccer
Liverpool can defend title
Liverpool will be allowed to defend its Champions League title, but will have to begin play in the first qualifying round. European soccer's governing body announced the decision yesterday after the 14-member executive committee agreed to make a special case for the five-time European champions. Despite beating AC Milan on penalties in the final in Istanbul last month, Liverpool was unable to gain an automatic spot in next season's competition. Under UEFA's rules, the champion didn't automatically qualify. The top four in the English Premier League qualify, and Liverpool finished only fifth. Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton qualified automatically.
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