BOXING
Towell dies after bout
Scottish boxer Mike Towell has died in hospital after the 25-year-old suffered serious injuries in a welterweight bout in Glasgow on Thursday. Towell was knocked down in the opening round of his bout by Welshman Dale Evans and referee Victor Loughlin eventually stopped the contest in the fifth. The Dundee fighter received treatment in the ring before being taken to hospital. St Andrews Sporting Club, which organized the fight, yesterday said that Towell had died. “Within the last hour Mike Towell passed away — he will always be in our hearts #RIPIronMike,” it said on Twitter. After the fight, Evans released a statement saying he was “devastated” to see Towell being taken from the ring on a stretcher. “The aftermath of the fight is so hard to take in, but I just want people to know that every thought I have today is with Mike Towell’s family,” he said.
RUGBY UNION
England gets into judo
Eddie Jones wants his England team to get a grip so he will bring in a group of judo experts to freshen up their tackling techniques ahead of next month’s Tests. The 56-year-old, who has guided England to a Six Nations Grand Slam and 3-0 series win over his native Australia in his short spell in charge, believes the ancient Japanese martial art can be a useful tool in rugby. A visit to the British judo training base in Wolverhampton, central England, where he met former world champion Kate Howey, made a big impression on the Australian. “We’ve got a couple of people coming from judo, coming down to the Brighton training camp,” Jones said on Friday as he named his sqaud for next month’s clashes against South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia. “One of the things that really came out of the Australia tour is that we need to work on our grappling area at the tackle. So we’ve got some judo coaches coming in,” he said.
MARATHONS
Pole wins Spartathlon
Polish runner Andrzej Radzikowski yesterday won the 245.3km historic Spartathlon race for the first time, clocking 23 hours, 1 minute and 13 seconds. Radzikowski, 35, was 18th last year and two years ago finished third. Finishing second was Italy’s 39-year-old Marco Bonfiglio in 23:35.14, while 42-year-old Radek Brunner of the Czech Republic was third in 24:06.39. The first woman across the line and fourth overall for the second year in a row was the US’ Katalyn Nagy, 37, in 25:22.26. The race traces the classical route of Pheidippides, an Athenian messenger sent to Sparta in 490BC to seek help against the Persians in the Battle of Marathon.
NFL
J.J. Watt out for season
Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien on Friday said that injured defensive star J.J. Watt would miss the rest of the season after undergoing back surgery. Watt underwent surgery on Thursday after consulting a specialist, having been placed on injured reserve a day earlier. The 27-year-old has injured the same disc which was operated on in July and forced him to miss the pre-season. O’Brien on Friday said he had not seen Watt since his surgery. “I haven’t seen him, I’m sure he’s doing well,” O’Brien told reporters, confirming the player would miss the rest of the season. In a heartfelt social media post on Wednesday, Watt vowed he was determined to return. “Everybody deals with adversity in their lives, many much worse than what I’m going through,” he said.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB