ACROBATICS
Acrobat dies in festival fall
An acrobat has fallen to his death in front of horrified onlookers at a festival in Madrid, sparking anger at organizers who refused to halt performances following the accident. Pedro Aunion Monroy, a Spanish performance artist living in the UK, tumbled about 30m during a dance routine at the Mad Cool event in the Spanish capital late on Friday. “I regret to tell you he died today,” his sister Estefi Chaje said on Facebook. “He was doing what he loved the most... We are devastated.” Organizers of the three-day music festival, which featured acts including US rock bands Foo Fighters and Green Day, issued a statement saying the event would continue despite the “terrible accident.” Many were angry at the decision. “I’ve just seen a guy fall and die, all projected on the giant screen. And thousands of people carried on dancing. I’m lost for words,” tweeted one festival-goer. Green Day played their Friday night headline set as planned.
SCUBA DIVING
Divers submerge for music
About 400 divers and snorkelers have submerged in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary for a local radio station’s broadcast beneath the sea advocating reef preservation. Saturday’s Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival at Looe Key Reef, part of the world’s third-largest living coral barrier reef, featured four hours of music custom programmed by WWUS for subsea listening. The playlist included the theme from the Little Mermaid, the Beatles’ Octopus’s Garden and Jaws, “just to get participants’ attention,” event cocreator Bill Becker said. Music was transmitted via waterproof speakers hung from boats. Several divers were costumed, including two mermaids and a Sponge Bob cartoon character. The commercial-free broadcast included public service announcements promoting coral reef conservation.
SOCCER
Lukaku busted at party
Belgian soccer star Romelu Lukaku is in trouble for raucous partying in California. Lukaku, 24, was arrested at a house he was staying at in Beverly Hills after officers warned him five times to turn down the music at a party, police said on Saturday. The striker from Belgium plays for Everton in the Premier League, but Manchester United is trying to sign him to a US$97 million transfer deal. It is not clear why Lukaku was in the Los Angeles area, but Man United plays the LA Galaxy in a preseason exhibition next weekend. Lukaku was not handcuffed or booked when he was cited for the misdemeanor of excessive noise, an officer said. Lukaku is scheduled to appear in Los Angeles Superior Court on Oct. 2.
SOCCER
Ajax midfielder stable
AFC Ajax midfielder Abdelhak Nouri is in a stable condition after collapsing on Saturday during a pre-season friendly against Werder Bremen in Austria. The 20-year-old required medical attention on the pitch before being airlifted to hospital where his club has since said that he is “stable, has a heartbeat and is asleep.” The game was abandoned, with Ajax later revealing that Nouri had arrhythmia, a condition whereby the heart beats either too fast or too slow. “Appie is asleep to treat him as effectively as possible. Our thoughts are with him and his family,” Ajax tweeted, referring to the player by his nickname. Nouri made 15 appearances for the Dutch club last season, including three in the Europa League, though he did not play in the final, a defeat to Manchester United.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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