SOCCER
Inter reappoints Mancini
Inter reappointed Roberto Mancini as coach on Friday in a bid to rediscover their glory days, when they won three successive Serie A titles under the Italian. Walter Mazzarri was earlier sacked after a string of poor results left Inter ninth in the table, 12 points behind leaders Juventus. “Welcome back to our new coach, together we will return Inter to being one of the top clubs in Europe,” club president Erick Thohir said in a club statement. Former successful Napoli coach Mazzarri, who took over from Andrea Stramaccioni at Inter in May last year, had come under immense pressure of late and the club’s new Indonesian owners have decided to act. Bringing back a crowd favorite in Mancini will help the hierarchy curry favor with fans uninspired by last year’s takeover. Media reports said Mancini has signed a deal until 2017. Fans will hope Mancini can do what he did last time when he won the club’s first trophy in seven years before dominating Serie A during Juventus’ demotion for match-fixing.
RUGBY UNION
Beale rejoins Wallabies
Kurtley Beale left Australia to join up with his Wallaby teammates in Europe yesterday, saying he wants to redeem himself after fearing his international career was over. Beale received a call-up to join the Wallabies for the last two matches of their northern hemisphere tour after being left out of the squad for disciplinary breaches. Beale has not played for Australia since the Wallabies’ loss in Cape Town against South Africa on Sept. 27. On the ensuing flight to Argentina to play the Pumas, Beale had an argument with then-Wallabies business manager Di Patston, which quickly descended into a major scandal engulfing the Australian Rugby Union and leading to the resignations of Patston and then-Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie. Beale was fined A$48,000 (US$41,700) for sending an offensive text message to Patston and sanctioned again later for being rude and disrespectful to Wallaby team management on the flight.
SKIING
Violinist to appeal ski ban
Pop violinist Vanessa Mae plans to file an appeal against a four-year ban from competitive skiing for taking part in fixed races before the Sochi Olympics. Mae calls the sanction “nonsensical” and says the matter is “now with my lawyers and we will of course be appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.” The International Ski Federation imposed the ban on Tuesday, saying four giant-slalom races in Slovenia were fixed in January to allow Mae to qualify for February’s Sochi Games. Five ski officials were also suspended. The celebrity musician competed for Thailand in Sochi, finishing last of 67 racers in the giant slalom.
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