Wales players are set to be exposed to a week of training at a cryotherapy center ahead of the Six Nations Grand Slam winners’ two Test tour of South Africa next month, coach Warren Gatland announced on Tuesday.
The New Zealander has selected a 24-man training squad who will gather on Monday at Whites of Wexford, south-east Ireland, a hotel which has its own cryotherapy chamber.
Cryotherapy is a process in which the body is briefly subjected to extremely low temperatures below minus 110ºC. Enthusiasts say this reduces recovery time from muscle strain and injuries, making it particularly useful for sportsmen by allowing them to do more training in a shorter space of time than would normally be possible.
“Cryotherapy is something that has been around in sport for some time and something I’ve used before at specific times as an aid to training at various camps in Poland whilst I was in charge of Ireland and London Wasps,” Gatland said.
“The facilities at the camp in Wexford will be top notch, but as much as anything else this is a chance for us to gather as a group for the first time since the Six Nations, to train together and to prepare ourselves for a tough tour against the Springboks,” he said.
Gatland, whose side face world champions South Africa in Bloemfontein on June 7 before the second Test in Pretoria a week later, has brought in uncapped London Irish scrum-half Warren Fury, Dragons No. 9 Andy Williams and Llanelli full-back Morgan Stoddart in addition to calling-up most of his Slam squad.
Injuries have forced Gavin Henson (ankle), Dwayne Peel (shoulder), Mark Jones (groin), Deiniol Jones (shoulder), Mike Phillips (knee) and Robin Sowden-Taylor (shoulder) to miss the training camp — although neither Henson nor Peel have yet been ruled out of the tour altogether.
Backs Lee Byrne and Sonny Parker will have knee injuries assessed later in the week to ensure they can travel to Ireland for the fitness work.
Gloucester duo Gareth Cooper and Gareth Delve were left out because of their club’s English Premiership play-off hopes.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set