ITALY
Palermo axe another coach
US Citta di Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini announced a remarkable eighth coaching change of the season on Monday as Walter Novellino was given his marching orders after four matches in charge. “People say I’ve gone mad, but it’s not true,” said the 75-year-old, who has overseen about 35 coaching changes since he took over at the club in 2002. “I am the victim... of certain situations,” he told Radio 24 in an interview. Novellino, 62, took one point from his four outings, leaving the Sicilians in the Serie A relegation zone with six matches to play. Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat by SS Lazio was clearly the last straw. “Palermo are unbearable to watch,” Zamparini said. “In the last two games the team has conceded six goals. It’s not easy, I care for Novellino, but he is getting on a bit. We’ve got a foot in Serie B and we don’t have the mentality to survive.” Italian media said Davide Ballardini, one of the coaches already fired by Palermo this season, could return for a second spell. The situation is so chaotic that there is no exact agreement on how many coaches Palermo have officially had, although the general consensus is there have been eight changes.
SPAIN
UD Las Palmas rise to 10th
Striker Sergio Araujo scored a pair of second-half goals as UD Las Palmas defeated RC Deportivo de La Coruna 3-1 on Monday to jump five places in La Liga. Forward Lucas Perez put the hosts ahead in the 47th minute, but Araujo equalized in the 58th and defender David Garcia scored the winning goal in the 79th. Araujo sealed the victory for Las Palmas in stoppage-time. The away win moved newly promoted Las Palmas from 15th to 10th with 39 points, 11 clear of the relegation zone. Deportivo remained on 37 points and dropped to 12th.
SPAIN
Getafe fire Fran Escriba
Second-from-bottom Getafe responded to their three-month spell without a win by sacking coach Fran Escriba on Monday. Former Elche boss Escriba became the 10th La Liga coach to be relieved of his duties this season. Getafe’s 2-0 reverse at Villarreal on Sunday was their 10th defeat in 12 games. They have not won in the league since beating RCD Espanyol 3-1 on Jan. 17. Getafe are two points from safety with six games remaining. They have yet to announce a successor to Escriba, who took over from Pablo Franco Martin in June last year.
SAMOA
Ref shows six red cards
A referee had his hands full as he brandished six red cards during a fiery Oceania Champions League match that ended 4-3 and saw nine minutes of stoppage-time. Anish Khem was the hero on Monday for Nadi FA of Fiji, scoring all four goals against Samoa’s Kiwi. It was a routine game until the 44th minute when a player from each side was given his marching orders by referee George Time of the Solomon Islands for their part in a fracas, with Kiwi leading 3-1. There was little further drama until an 81st-minute melee resulted in another double sending-off — Nadi goalkeeper Vereti Dickson and Kiwi’s Lionel Taylor. Nadi then pulled a goal back on 87 minutes before Kiwi substitute Lawrie Letutusa saw red. Because of all the interruptions, nine minutes of stoppage-time were added which saw two more Nadi goals and another dismissal. Khem completed his hat-trick in the sixth minute of stoppage-time and made it a four-goal haul with a 98th-minute winner. In between, Nadi’s Napolioni Qasevakatini was ordered off.
CRICKET
Cook shows county form
England Test captain Alastair Cook hit his first County Championship century since 2014 on Monday as the Essex batsman made a confident start to his preparations for the forthcoming international campaign. Cook, 31, looked in dominant form on his way to scoring 105 in Essex’s opening game of the English domestic competition against Gloucestershire at Chelmsford. Together with Tom Westley, who blasted 121, Cook put on 222 in a record second-wicket partnership for Essex in matches against Gloucestershire. Essex finished a rain-interrupted day on 287-6 in response to their opponents’ first-innings total of 262.
RUGBY UNION
Justin Tipuric to miss tour
Wales flanker Justin Tipuric will miss his country’s tour to New Zealand after suffering a concussion during the Six Nations. Tipuric’s club Ospreys said he would undergo “a prolonged three-month period of recovery” following his head injury in the Italy clash last month. The 26-year-old went off early in Wales’ 67-14 win over Italy and, although he is on the mend, it has been decided not to rush him back into action.
FORMULA ONE
New rules shelved
Formula One’s governing body has officially approved a move back to last year’s qualifying format for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix after the new system proved widely unpopular. The new rolling-elimination format — in which the slowest driver is eliminated every 90 seconds — was used in the first two races this season in Australia and Bahrain, but heavily criticized both times for a lack of on-track action. All the teams voted against the new format last week, prompting FIA president Jean Todt and series commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone to backtrack.
SWIMMING
McEvoy makes 100m mark
Cameron McEvoy has zoomed into gold medal calculations for the 100m freestyle at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics with the third-fastest time in history at the Australian Championships in Adelaide. The 21-year-old physics student overpowered a strong field to win the sprint late on Monday in a new Commonwealth and Australian record of 47.04 seconds in this year’s fastest time in the event. It placed McEvoy a tantalising 0.13 seconds off Brazilian Cesar Cielo’s 2009 world record of 46.91 seconds, making him nominally the man to beat in Brazil. Only Cielo and Frenchman Alain Bernard (46.94 seconds) have registered quicker times than McEvoy’s effort, but significantly both were set in the controversial super-suit era.
JUDO
Riner breaks coach’s wrist
France’s Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner sent national team coach Larbi Benboudaoud to hospital with a smashed wrist during a training session at the weekend, the pair told reporters on Monday. Riner, 27 and an eight-time world champion, had asked Benboudaoud to help him warm up during the Judo Grand Prix in Turkey on Sunday and during the session the 140kg athlete fell on former world 66kg champion Benboudaoud. “My wrist swelled up immediately. When I arrived back in Paris, I immediately went to hospital where I was operated on. My wrist was like a jigsaw puzzle,” said Benboudaoud, who coaches the French women’s team. Benboudaoud had four pins inserted with his wrist, which is to remain in a splint for six weeks. “I’m 42 years and it’s the first time I’ve spent the night in hospital. Teddy was very upset,” he said.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed