ICE HOCKEY
Versteeg traded to Flyers
The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded forward Kris Versteeg to Philadelphia in exchange for the Flyers’ first and third-round picks in this year’s draft, the teams said on Monday. Versteeg, acquired in June last year in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks, played 53 games for the Maple Leafs this season, recording 14 goals and 21 assists. The Flyers lead the Atlantic Division with 77 points, three ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Toronto has 52 points and is in fourth place in the five-team Northeast Division.
RUGBY UNION
Giteau to join Toulon: report
Australia playmaker Matt Giteau has agreed to join French side Toulon after this year’s Rugby World Cup, a report said yesterday. The 91-cap veteran has agreed terms for an 18-month contract, leaving the door open for a possible return for the British and Irish Lions’ trip to Australia in 2013, the Australian newspaper said. Giteau, 28, would join English flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson, former New Zealand prop Carl Hayman and former Western Force teammate Matt Henjak at Toulon, who are currently fourth in the French top division. Giteau will lead out the ACT Brumbies for their first Super 15 match against Waikato Chiefs in Canberra on Saturday.
BASEBALL
Bonds’ lawyers seek ban
Barry Bonds’ attorneys are seeking to keep details about the baseball player’s temper from the jury. On Monday, they asked the US federal judge overseeing the perjury case to bar testimony from Bonds’ former girlfriend, his doctor and others that the former San Francisco Giant berated people and treated his former personal trainer disrespectfully. The defense team also wants to bar testimony about Bonds’ relationships with a Playboy magazine model and with his second wife. Those requests were contained in several court documents that Bonds’ attorneys and prosecutors filed on Monday seeking to limit what the other side shows the jury during the trial scheduled to start on March 21.
GOLF
Woods sorry for spitting
Tiger Woods apologized on Monday in a Twitter message for spitting on the 12th green during the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic, an act which brought a fine from the European Tour. Tournament director Mike Stewart reviewed the incident, seen worldwide on television and on YouTube, and decided that the former world No. 1 and 14-time major champion had broken the tour code of conduct. “The Euro Tour is right — it was inconsiderate to spit like that and I know better. Just wasn’t thinking and I want to say I’m sorry,” Woods wrote in a message posted on the microblogging site. Woods failed to end a 15-month victory drought, firing a final-round 75 to finish in a share of 20th place, seven strokes behind winner Alvaro Quiros of Spain.
BASKETBALL
Brawl stops women’s game
A physical altercation between the women’s teams from Bethune-Cookman University and Maryland-Eastern Shore led officials to suspend the basketball game with 16 minutes, 22 left in the second half. Game officials, security and both coaching staffs eventually broke up the melee on the court, sending the teams to their locker rooms. Officially the game was stopped because of unsportsmenlike behavior on both teams. -Bethune--Cookman was leading 32-21 when play was halted.
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