RUGBY UNION
Arrest in bugging incident
Australian police have arrested and charged a 51-year-old man with public mischief after an investigation into the discovery of a listening device at the All Blacks hotel in Sydney ahead of their Rugby Championship clash against the Wallabies last year. The world champions notified police after they discovered the device in their team meeting room at their eastern Sydney hotel in the days leading up to the Aug. 20 clash. “A man has been charged after a listening device was located in a room at a hotel in Sydney’s east last year,” New South Wales Police said in a statement yesterday. “An investigation was established in August 2016 by detectives from Rose Bay Local Area Command to investigate allegations a listening device was located in a room at a hotel in Double Bay. Following inquiries, earlier today ... a Future Court Attendance Notice was served on a 51-year-old man for public mischief to appear at Waverley Local Court on Tuesday, 21 March, 2017.” Police said that the man was employed as a security consultant at the time of the alleged offense. However, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said the situation was “very hard to understand” as “the charged man has worked for the All Blacks, and many other organizations, for a long time and is someone who is trusted and well respected by us.” The Australian Rugby Union welcomed the arrest, but still felt aggrieved that the All Blacks had not alerted police until the day of the game, despite having found it in a chair cushion earlier in the week.
SOCCER
Tim Cahill apologizes
Tim Cahill has apologized for swearing at a referee after he was sent off before he even made it onto the pitch in an explosive Melbourne derby in Australia last week. The former Everton forward, now with Melbourne City, was about to come on as a substitute when he made his comments to the referee following Melbourne Victory’s controversial winner. “I sincerely apologize to [referee] Chris Beath for my reaction,” Australia’s all-time record goalscorer, 37, said via Instagram late on Monday. “My behavior also hurt the game, so I also apologize to my team, to Melbourne Victory and to all the fans at the game and watching at home.” Tempers flared late in the game after Victory scored twice in two minutes to grab a 2-1 win, sealed by a Manny Muscat own-goal that was briefly ruled out for offside. Including Cahill’s one-match ban, Melbourne City have six players suspended for their next A-League game and a seventh, goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis, is likely to join them. Bouzanis faces a charge of using a racist slur against Victory’s Albanian striker Besart Berisha.
BADMINTON
Lee rues slippery floor
World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei was left fuming after an injury at Malaysia’s new training center cost him what might have been his last All England Championship, reports said yesterday. The 34-year-old, who was gunning for his fourth title at the tournament next month, will be out for weeks after he slipped and fell at the new Academy Badminton Malaysia on Saturday. Lee tore a ligament in his left knee in the incident, the Star newspaper said yesterday. “This injury could have been avoided,” Lee was reported as saying. He said he had complained about the new center’s slippery court mats, but “nothing was done.”
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