■SOCCER
Police seize Ribery files
Police searched the headquarters of French soccer team Olympique Marseille (OM) on Monday and seized documents relating to Franck Ribery’s transfer from Galatasaray to OM in 2005, a police source said yesterday. Marseille prosecutors launched an investigation last year after Ribery’s agent filed a complaint against the player and Marseille for alleged irregularities related to Ribery’s transfer from the Turkish side. France forward Ribery left OM for Bayern Munich in 2007.
■BASEBALL
Bid to block book rejected
A New York judge has rejected a bid by a cryonics foundation to block the release of a book that alleges Hall of Fame member Ted Williams’ severed head was mistreated at its Arizona facility. State Supreme Court Judge James Yates issued an order on Monday saying that Larry Johnson can discuss and promote his book, the New York Daily News reported. Johnson is the author of Frozen and a former executive at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Johnson claims a technician took baseball-like swings at Williams’ frozen head with a wrench. Claudia Williams, the youngest child of the Red Sox star, issued a statement through an attorney saying she was “horrified and shocked” by Yates’ decision. The last player to hit over .400 in a season, Williams died in 2002 at age 83 and had his remains sent to Alcor for cryogenic storage.
■ATHLETICS
Semenya must go on: ANC
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) says champion runner Caster Semenya should continue in women’s athletics regardless of any gender tests. Party spokesman Jackson Mthembu said on Monday that Semenya had been brought up as a girl and should therefore “continue to run as a woman.” Semenya won the 800m at the world championships in August in Berlin. Before the final, the International Association of Athletics Federations said it had ordered gender tests. The ANC has set up a group to support Semenya, who it said in a statement has been “victimized and subjected to unnecessary public scrutiny.” Former president Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a prominent ANC figure and lawmaker, is to head the support group.
■MOTOR RACING
Fans limited to 24 beers
Fans at one of Australia’s most popular motor sport races, the Bathurst 1000, will be limited to one “slab” of beer a day — or two dozen 375ml cans — as police focus on reducing alcohol-related crime. The 24-can rule would also be placed on mixed drinks for the V8 car race starting tomorrow in the rural town of Bathurst in eastern New South Wales state, police said yesterday. More restrained spectators will be able to slake their thirst with up to 36 cans of low or mid-strength beer. Wine lovers must make do with no more than 4 litres of cask wine per day and combinations of the options would not be allowed, the police statement said. The race runs from Thursday to Sunday.
■SOCCER
Italy into U20 quarters
Italy booked its place in the quarter-finals of the Under-20 World Cup in Cairo on Monday, beating 10-man Spain 3-1, while South Korea also advanced with a 3-0 victory over Paraguay. Spain had eased through its group games without conceding a goal, but struggled on Monday after losing Alberto Botia in the 28th minute for a foul on Andrea Mazzarani.
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