SOCCER
Lokeren edge Mechelen
Taiwan international Xavier Chen’s KV Mechelen remained eighth in the Belgian Jupiler League on Saturday after a 3-2 away loss to KSC Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen. Benjamin De Ceulaer opened the scoring for Lokeren after eight minutes, but the visitors equalized a minute later through Jaime Alfonso Ruiz. Nill De Pauw regained the lead for the hosts in the 53rd minute and Hamdi Harbaoui made it 3-1 six minutes later. Substitute Kevin Vandenbergh scored a consolation for Mechelen with a minute left to play. Chen played the full 90 minutes.
ICE HOCKEY
Sidney Crosby’s neck injured
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has sustained a serious neck injury and a concussion, the National Hockey League team said on Saturday. Crosby, who has been sidelined since early last month after a relapse of concussion-like symptoms, was recently examined by neurological spine specialist Robert Bray in Los Angeles, where tests revealed the neck injury. Crosby’s agent, Pat Brisson, told CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada that the Canadian may have fractured two vertebrae when he was hit by Boston Bruins David Krejci on Dec. 5. “The diagnosis of Dr Robert S Bray, a neurological spine specialist based in Los Angeles, is that Sidney Crosby had suffered a neck injury in addition to a concussion,” the team said in a statement. Crosby, the NHL’s most popular player and biggest name, missed the final 41 games of last season and the first 20 games this season before making his long awaited return in November last year. He scored 12 points in eight games, but began experiencing concussion-like symptoms again early last month and has not played since Dec. 5.
ATHLETICS
Mo Farah wins 1,500m
World 5,000m champion Mo Farah won a thrilling 1,500m from Kenya’s Augustine Choge to clinch the Aviva International Match for Britain and Northern Ireland in Glasgow, Scotland, on Saturday. Farah and Choge, a 1,500m specialist, bumped a few times before Farah held off Choge’s sprint finish. Britain’s two other world championships medalists didn’t fare as well. Hannah England was edged on the line in the women’s 1,500m by Denise Krebs of Germany, and Andy Turner was last in the 60 hurdles won by Konstantin Shabanov of Russia. Turner was still recovering from an Achilles injury. Russia was second overall, followed by Germany, a Commonwealth Select team and the US.
ALPINE SKIING
Skier dies in avalanche
Authorities say a skier has died after becoming trapped in an avalanche in a Utah backcountry area that the public was warned to avoid after potent snowstorms. The death marks the ninth avalanche fatality in the western US this season, and experts say the risk of additional slides could remain high all winter. Unified Police lieutenant Justin Hoyal says the victim was skiing with two other people when the avalanche occurred on Saturday morning near Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Range, about 16km southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah. The victim’s name wasn’t immediately released. Bruce Tremper of the Utah Avalanche Center says the group was in an area that the public was warned to stay away from after last week’s snowstorms. Experts say a weak base layer of snow, packed with large grains of ice, is plaguing parts of Utah, Colorado, Montana and California. They say these conditions could keep avalanche risks high for the rest of the season.
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