■TENNIS
Lu triumphs in Tenerife
Top seed Lu Yen-hsun downed Dominik Meffert of Germany in straight sets on Wednesday to reach the third round of the Tenerife Challenger hard court tournament. The first set went to a tie-break that Lu won without dropping a point. The second set was also close but the Taiwanese No. 1 prevailed 6-4 over the 1.98m-tall world No. 216 to set up a third round clash with Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli. The Swiss defeated Andrea Stoppini of Italy 6-1, 6-4 in their second round match.
■ATHLETICS
Bolt’s BMW skids off road
Jamaican Olympic sensation Usain Bolt suffered only minor injuries on Wednesday when his BMW skidded off the road and overturned in a ditch. “I am good,” Bolt told fans as he limped away from hospital with small bandages on his feet. Bolt’s manager Norman Peart said the athlete’s feet were pricked by thorns when he exited the vehicle. “He was taken to the Spanish Town Public Hospital, where he was treated. He has been sent home for recovery,” Peart said. Bolt, 22, won gold medals in the 100m, the 200m and the 4x100m relay at the Beijing Games last August, setting world records in all three events. Police said Bolt’s vehicle was extensively damaged after apparently skidding on a rain-slicked road. He was treated in hospital along with his brother and a female companion. The leader of Jamaica’s parliament, Andrew Holness, said the country could breathe a sigh of relief. He was supported by the leader of the Opposition, Portia Simpson Miller, who expressed “joy that nothing happened to Usain.”
■FOOTBALL
Super Bowl MVP on charge
Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Santonio Holmes was arraigned on a misdemeanor marijuana charge on Wednesday that stemmed from a traffic stop last year. Holmes’ lawyer, Robert Delreco Jnr, appeared at the brief court hearing, but Holmes, who was not required to attend, did not. DelGreco said he planned to challenge the constitutionality of the traffic stop, but gave no further details. Pittsburgh police said they found marijuana in Holmes’ car when he was pulled over on Oct. 23. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin sidelined the receiver for a game in the wake of the incident, in which Holmes wasn’t arrested. In February, Holmes earned MVP honors in the National Football League title game against Arizona for his game-winning tip-toe touchdown catch that helped the Steelers to an unprecedented sixth Super Bowl title.
■CYCLING
Armstrong finishes eighth
Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong tested his surgically repaired collarbone on Wednesday and pronounced himself satisfied with his progress in the wake of a crash last month. “Better than I thought I would be,” Armstrong said of where he stands in his recovery after finishing eighth in the opening stage of the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico on Wednesday. Armstrong required surgery on his right collarbone after a fall in the Vuelta Castilla y Leon in Spain on March 23. The Texan had a stainless steel plate and 12 screws inserted to stabilise the bone. “There’s so much hardware in there, it’s not going to move,” he said. Armstrong rode largely in support of Astana teammate and stage winner Levi Leipheimer. Armstrong, Leipheimer and Chris Horner are riding in the event as independents.
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