A former employee of Ron Dennis apologized on Tuesday over “unfounded” allegations of racism and homophobia against the McLaren Formula One team boss.
Peter Boland, who worked as a steward on Dennis’ private jet, had claimed that when Dennis had boarded the jet in the Middle East he said he wanted to wash his hands because he had been “shaking hands with Arabs all day.”
During a tribunal hearing in Southampton he also alleged that he had been discriminated against and victimized by Dennis over rumors of his sexual orientation.
But on Tuesday the 27-year-old, who was sacked by Dennis in May 2007 after working for him for five years, apologized unreservedly for the allegations.
“I have decided to withdraw my action against Mr Dennis and all respondents in the case,” he said. “I unreservedly apologize to Mr Dennis and all respondents, and to the Southampton Employment Tribunal, for wasting their time with what I now realize were unfounded allegations,” he said.
Dennis welcomed the move.
“Clearly, I and all at McLaren, and all the other respondents, have been totally vindicated by the complete and unequivocal withdrawal and unreserved apology by Peter Boland,” he said.
“This case has been hurtful, irritating and unnecessary, in the sense that no impropriety ever took place, which fact Mr Boland now concedes,” he said.
On Monday, Dennis had branded the racism allegation an “absolute lie” and “ridiculous.”
Dennis said Boland had been sacked because he was not doing his job properly, had fallen asleep while working on the jet and had been rude to guests.
At the tribunal, the businessman agreed he had not followed procedures when dismissing Boland but said this had been done out of a desire to reach an amicable settlement.
Dennis denied he had fired Boland because of rumors he was gay.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier