■ Cycling
Armstrong engaged to Crow
American cycling hero Lance Armstrong and singer Sheryl Crow announced on Monday that they are engaged, said Mark Higgins, a spokesman for Armstrong. The two got engaged while they were holidaying in Sun Valley, Idaho. There is no wedding date as of yet. It will be the second marriage for Armstrong, who has three children with ex-wife Kristin. Rock star Crow has never been married. Armstrong retired in July after winning his seventh straight Tour de France. Last month French sports newspaper L'Equipe reported that urine samples taken from Armstrong in 1999 during his first Tour triumph tested positive for the banned substance EPO. Armstrong has denied taking any performance-enhancing drugs.
■ Cricket
Aussies asked to talk to team
Cricket Australia yesterday appealed to Australian cricket fans to get behind their team ahead of the final Ashes Test against England starting at The Oval tomorrow. Australia trail 2-1 in the series and must beat England in the last match of the series to maintain their 16-year hold on the Ashes urn. Cricket Australia have organized a link on their Web site for fans to send messages of support to their favorite player or to the team. "We encourage Australian cricket fans to send their message of support to our team as they prepare for this important contest," CA chief executive James Sutherland said in a statement yesterday. Messages of support can be sent to the team via australianteam@ashes.cricket.com.au
■ Rowing
Poland to host championship
The city of Poznan in western Poland was selected to host the 2009 World Rowing Championships, the International Rowing Federation (FISA) announced at its 113th annual congress. In a vote by delegates from 56 countries on Monday, Poznan defeated Amsterdam, the Netherlands, by a vote of 104-37. Poznan successfully hosted last year's World Rowing Under-23 Championships and also one stage of last year's Rowing World Cup. This year's World Rowing Championships wrapped up on Sunday in Kaizu, Japan.
■ Soccer
Australia win Oceania series
Australia edged the Solomon Islands 2-1 yesterday on Brett Emerton's 59th-minute goal to win the Oceania Football Confederation's World Cup soccer qualifying series. Australia won the opening match 7-0 on Saturday in Sydney and advances 9-1 on aggregate. Yesterday's match was played in humid conditions before a capacity crowd of 20,000 at Lawson Tama Stadium. Australia now plays a two-match series against the fifth-placed South American team on Nov. 12 and Nov. 16 for the right to play in next year's World Cup in Germany. It was Australia's 100th -- and final -- match in the Oceania confederation after 40 years. Australia will compete in the Asian Football Confederation from next year.
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