SOCCER
Trujillo bail agreement set
A Guatemalan judge indicted in a probe of global soccer corruption must wear an electronic monitor and cannot be more than about 80km from the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, as part of a bail agreement set on Thursday by a US magistrate. The bail agreement for Hector Trujillo also set his bond at US$4 million. Trujillo’s attorney said friends and relatives would be putting up cash and real estate properties as security for the bond. Trujillo was general secretary of Guatemala’s soccer federation at the time of his arrest last month. US authorities took him into custody on a cruise ship docked in Florida waters. He was among 16 men charged in an indictment that is part of a broad investigation into FIFA, the international soccer governing body, and he faces charges including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.
MOTOR RACING
McLaren stalwart dies
American Tyler Alexander, who helped Bruce McLaren found the McLaren Formula One team in the 1960s and remained a part of it for more than 40 years, died on Thursday at the age of 75. “Tyler Alexander was one of the first pillars of our company,” McLaren Group head Ron Dennis said in a tribute on the McLaren Web site. “Bruce couldn’t have asked for a sturdier pair of shoulders upon which to help build the team’s reputation. Tyler was one of the finest of the old school: hardy, humble and wise, leaving a reputation and a legacy that will remain indelible in the history of international motorsport.” Raised in Hingham, Massachusetts, Alexander befriended Pennsylvania lawyer Teddy Mayer, who was involved in motorsport with his racing driver brother Timmy, and then met New Zealander McLaren in England.
CRICKET
Younis contract extended
Pakistan on Thursday said that they will keep national team head coach Waqar Younis in place until the end of their England tour later this year. Waqar’s two-year contract expires in May, but Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan said his team management would continue until September. “We have not taken a final decision on the contracts of the team management, but Waqar and other staff will continue until the end of Pakistan’s tour of England,” Khan said. Pakistan play four Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 on the tour which starts on June 29. After two warm-up games the first Test starts at Lord’s from July 14. Waqar took over as head coach in June 2013, and under him Pakistan have lost six of their nine one-day series. They have shown improvement in Tests, however, winning four of their six series, losing one and drawing the other.
SOCCER
Curtis ‘impresses’ Swansea
Alan Curtis will stay in charge of Swansea until the end of the Premier League season after impressing in his role as caretaker manager following the firing of Garry Monk last month. Swansea has collected five points in five games under Curtis, who has kept the Welsh team out of the relegation zone. “We have all been impressed with the way [Curtis] has improved performance levels ... the players have obviously responded to him because we have seen an uplift in performances,” Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins said. Jenkins on Thursday said that finding a replacement for Monk “hasn’t been easy because we didn’t want to make a short-term decision that would be detrimental to the club long-term.” Swansea is 17th in the 20-team Premier League.
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