FOOTBALL
Raiders to play despite air
The Oakland Raiders’ NFL home game against the Los Angeles Chargers is to be played as scheduled today despite the poor air quality caused by fires raging in Northern California. “Sunday’s game against the Chargers remains scheduled for 1:25pm at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum,” the Raiders said in a statement posted on their Web site. A pall of smoke has moved south to Oakland, where the Raiders cut their training short for a second day in a row on Thursday because of poor air quality. Some players wore masks under their helmets as they practiced.
COMPETITION
Teacher vies for bag prize
A New Hampshire woman is heading to Las Vegas to compete for the title of the US’ fastest grocery bagger. WBTS-LD reports Alysha Orrok recently won the New Hampshire bagging competition. She is to face off against the US’ best during the national competition in February for a US$10,000 prize. The Portsmouth teacher works night and weekend shifts at a supermarket. She said she was not always this good. The quick-handed pro said on her first day she dropped a soda that exploded everywhere. Expert-level bagging requires a unique set of skills. Competitors are judged on multiple factors including speed, weight distribution, appearance and technique.
SOCCER
Jurman suspended for sign
Australia defender Matthew Jurman has been suspended from the South Korean top flight for two matches after making a “bribe gesture” at an opponent during a K League Classic match earlier this month. Suwon Samsung Bluewings center back Jurman approached Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors’ Lee Dong-gook and “rubbed his fingers together” as the striker prepared to take a spot kick after earning a penalty late in the Oct. 1 match, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing the K-League’s discipline committee. The committee also said that Lee heard Jurman saying “how much,” Yonhap said. He was fined 2 million won (US$1,776). Jurman told reporters after the 1-1 draw with Jeonbuk he had said: “You will miss” to Lee, the news agency added. Jeonbuk were disqualified from defending their Asian Champions League title in January following revelations that one of their scouts had bribed referees in 2013. The scout, who was given a six-month suspended jail sentence was found dead at Jeonbuk’s home stadium in June.
FIGURE SKATING
Gold pulls out of events
Figure skater Gracie Gold’s chances of making the US Olympic team have diminished after she withdrew from two events in next month’s Grand Prix series for personal reasons. US Figure Skating on Friday said that Gold would miss competitions in Beijing and Grenoble, France, due to ongoing treatment for off-ice matters. “It saddens me deeply to sit out this Grand Prix Series, but I know it is for the best,” Gold said in a statement released to media outlets. “I am currently in treatment for depression, anxiety and an eating disorder. I will not have adequate training time to prepare and compete at the level that I want to.” Form during the Grand Prix series is taken into consideration for selection on the US team, which is to be named after the national championships in January. Gold, 22, a two-time US champion, finished fourth in the individual event in Sochi in 2014.
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