Print

Mail

wiki links

Sports Briefs

■ ATHLETICS
Gebrselassie sets record
Haile Gebrselassie set a world record in the men's rare one-hour race on Wednesday, running 21.285km at the IAAF Grand Prix Golden Spike meet. Gebrselassie broke the record of 21.101km set by Mexico's Arturo Barrios in 1991 in La Fleche, France. The Ethiopian, who dominated long distance running before switching to the marathon and road races in 2005, was supported by three pacemakers at the start.

■ CRICKET
Woolmer inspires movie
How did a famous cricket coach die after his team was knocked out of the World Cup? That is the plot of a new Bollywood thriller prompted by the controversy that surrounded the death of Bob Woolmer, the South African cricket coach of the Pakistani team during the recent World Cup. Well-known Indian producer Mukesh Bhatt told the Indian Express newspaper the movie will be titled Jannat and filming begins in London, Yorkshire and Liverpool next month. "Jannat is based on Woolmer's death but we won't make any direct references," Bhatt said in the interview published yesterday. "It isn't a documentary."

■ SUMO WRESTLING
Teen dies after practice
A 17-year-old rookie sumo wrestler has died after he was taken ill in a practice session ahead of his second career tournament, police said yesterday. Tokitaizan, whose real name is Takashi Saito, was confirmed dead after being rushed to hospital in Inuyama near Nagoya, central Japan, from his stable's local training camp on Tuesday. "Illness was seen as the cause of his death," a spokesman for the Aichi prefectural police headquarters in Nagoya said by telephone, refusing to give further details. A post-mortem was to be performed on Saito.

■ RUGBY UNION
Former All Black Sadler dies
Former All Blacks scrumhalf Bernard "Joey" Sadler has died at the age of 92, the New Zealand Rugby Union said yesterday. Sadler, who played five tests among 14 matches for New Zealand in 1935 and 1936, was previously the second-oldest living All Black after Eric Tindill, who is 96. Sadler died on Tuesday. He toured Britain with the All Blacks in 1935 and played at home against Australia in 1936 before injury ended his career at the age of 22. "A small man even for a halfback, Sadler at 5 feet-5 inches [1.65m] and 10 stone [63kg] was one of the busiest of rugby players," the New Zealand Rugby Union Web site said. "He seemed to have all the attributes, a good passer and a courageous defender who could run hard and fast on the break. But for injury he could have been remembered as one of our greatest halfbacks."

■ SOCCER
Real Madrid sack Capello
Spanish league champions Real Madrid have fired coach Fabio Capello. Madrid's sports director Pedrag Mijatovic said the decision, which was widely expected, was made at a board meeting yesterday. He said the club were considering several candidates to replace the Italian coach but would not give any names. Speculation has been rampant in recent weeks that the club would get rid of Capello, even though the Italian coach led Madrid to the league championship earlier this month, ending a four-year trophy drought. The meeting came as Capello was on holiday abroad.


This story has been viewed 689 times.