■ Horse racing
Crooked jockeys suspended
Four jockeys were suspended for between one and three years on Friday after being found guilty of involvement in a betting scam. Robbie Fitzpatrick and Luke Fletcher received three-year suspensions, Fran Ferris two years and Robert Winston, the most successful and best known of the four, a 12-month disqualification by Britain's Horseracing Regulatory Authority. The charges related to 37 races between June 16, 2003 and Feb. 29, 2004 and included providing inside information for financial reward, aiding and abetting a corrupt practice and misleading investigators. All four denied the allegations. The charges related to 21 horses ridden by Winston, 11 ridden by Fletcher, four by Ferris and two by Fitzpatrick.
■ Soccer
Blues sign Belgian striker
English Premiership strugglers Manchester City boosted their ailing attack with the signing of veteran Belgian international striker Emile Mpenza until the end of the season on Friday. The 28-year-old, who has finished his contract with Qatari side al-Rayyan, still awaits international clearance before joining City, who are presently fifth from bottom of the Premiership, though 10 points clear of the relegation places. Mpenza, who has scored 17 goals in 52 internationals for his country and has mostly played abroad including two spells in the Bundesliga with Schalke 04 and Hamburg, has been on trial at City. Mpenza, twice a winner of the German Cup with Schalke 04 in 2001 and 2002, will be unavailable for today's difficult FA Cup fifth-round tie at Championship highflyers Preston.
■ Tennis
Police question FFT official
The head of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) is under official investigation for alleged abuse of office, it was reported by yesterday's edition of L'Equipe. Christian Bimes, 59 years old and head of the FFT since 1993, was held by police for two days earlier this week and subsequently released but is still under investigation. Suspicions were first raised in December 2004 when five employees of the FFT brought a complaint against Bimes for abusing his position. They chiefly accused him of using official cars for personal use, not paying back personal expenses, claiming for unjustified personal expenses (such as plane tickets, using the telephone for personal use and buying groceries) and that his wife had continued to work, after they had got married, for the company that supplied the hostesses for the French Open.
■ Collegiate sports
School drops Indian mascot
The University of Illinois said on Friday it would send its "Chief Illiniwek" to the graveyard of sports mascots, bowing to pressure from those who said the war-whooping symbol it used for more than 80 years offended American Indians. The action, part of a continuing debate in the US over sensitivity and political correctness, followed an edict from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA had said schools with hostile or abusive American Indian symbols may not host lucrative post-season championship play from next year, except for football as the NCAA does not oversee its post-season play. The university was also under pressure from some American Indians do away with the mascot. American Indian and ethnic symbols are still found as nicknames for school and professional teams at all levels. A school in Pekin, Illinois, once used but eventually dropped "Chinks" as its designation, a reference to the town's namesake Peking.
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