RUGBY UNION
Navy brawl video goes viral
More than 200 years after Britain and France fought the bloody Siege of Toulon during the French Revolutionary Wars, their modern-day navies came to blows again in the city — this time on the rugby field. A video of a mass brawl between the teams of the French Marine Nationale and the British Royal Navy, taking part in the annual Babcock International Trophy, went viral on Thursday. The two rugby sides, the French in blue and the British in gray, fought a running brawl which appeared to involve both sets of players as well as some support staff on the sidelines. Despite the incident, both teams attempted to play down the punch-up. “We are aware of an incident at a rugby match between the Royal Navy and the Marine Nationale in Toulon, France,” a Royal Navy spokesman said. “We understand the match continued without further incident and the two sides socialized together after the game.”
OLYMPICS
Test event called off
Rio de Janeiro Olympics organizers have called off a test event for track cycling because the wooden track has not been installed in the new velodrome. The test event was scheduled for April 30 to May 1. Rio spokesman Mario Andrada said he is “120 percent” sure the venue will be ready for the Olympics. The Games open on Aug. 5, and track cycling is scheduled for Aug. 11 to Aug. 16. Andrada said the velodrome will be “fully ready” by May 31, adding that a small training event is scheduled to take place there between June 25 and June 27. Despite countless problems plaguing South America’s first Olympics, Rio organizers have been largely successful completing venue construction. The velodrome has been the most problematic. Construction has repeatedly been delayed. The test event was initially scheduled for mid-March.
AFL
Drug policy defended
The embattled Australian Football League (AFL) have defended their policy for illicit drug use after local media reported that 11 players from one of the code’s top clubs allegedly tested positive during the off-season. The Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne reported late on Thursday that 11 players from the Collingwood Football Club had failed tests for illicit, but not performance-enhancing, drugs. Under a new policy, agreed with the AFL Players Association last year, first-time offenders receive a suspended fine and are made to attend mandatory counselling sessions. The players’ identities remain confidential until a second offence, which increases the financial penalty, imposes a four-match ban and is publicly announced. A third-offence results in a 12-month ban and a A$10,000 (US$7,530) fine.
SOCCER
Beckham secures land
Former England soccer great David Beckham has taken a key step toward his goal of launching a Major League Soccer franchise by buying land for a stadium in Miami, Florida, one of his partners said on Thursday. Beckham’s group of investors acquired land in the Overtown neighborhood northwest of downtown Miami. “Big News: We’ve closed on our #Miami stadium site. Excited to bring a world-class @MLS club to our fans,” Beckham’s partner Marcelo Claure posted on his Twitter account. Beckham, 40, has pursued the project for a 20,000-seat stadium since late 2013. Several attempts to buy land at other sites failed in the face of opposition from residents and local authorities.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier