■ Boxing
Police arrest Joe Frazier
Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier was arrested Friday and charged with assaulting a woman. The victim was described in police documents as the mother of Frazier's son, department spokesman Jim Pauley said. The 44-year-old woman was not seriously injured and refused medical treatment, police said. The 60-year-old boxing great was awaiting arraignment on charges of simple assault and reckless endangerment, police said. The 60-year-old Frazier was the world champion from 1970 to 1973, and fought Muhammad Ali in three classic heavyweight bouts, winning once and losing twice. He was also the heavyweight gold medalist at the 1964 Olympics.
■ Auto racing
Busch beat the best
Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and IRL star Helio Castroneves of Brazil finished sixth and IRL champion Scott Dixon of New Zealand was eighth in the season-opening 12-car International Race of Champions Series on Friday. Ryan Newman squeezed past fellow NASCAR driver and defending IROC champion Kurt Busch 100m from the finish line to win the 40-lap, 160-kilometer event on the banked 4km oval at Daytona International Speedway. Castroneves managed to finish in the top half despite being penalized to the back of the field for passing under the yellow line eight laps from the end. Newman will go into Texas Motor Speedway on April 2 -- the second of four IROC races this season -- holding a one-point (21-20) lead over Busch. The winner in the series sponsored for the first time this season by Crown Royal will get US$1 million, while the rest of the drivers each receive US$80,000.
■ Luge
Germany wins doubles
Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch posted the two fastest times Saturday as Germany won the men's doubles event at the luge World Championships in Nagano, Japan. Leitner clocked a time of 49.279 at Nagano Spiral while Resch had a run of 49.651 for a combined time of 1:38.930. Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich, also of Germany, were second with a time of 1:39.274 while Americans Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin were third in 1:39.280. Silke Kraushaar gave Germany its second victory of the day when she won the women's singles title with a time of 1:39.611. Germany also won the team event on Friday. Barbara Niedernhuber was second in 1:39.653 while Sylke Otto was third with a time of 1:39.860 as Germany made a clean sweep of the podium. American Ashley Hayden finished sixth with a time of 1:40.450.
■ Basketball
Manute Bol charged
Former NBA center Manute Bol was charged with hitting his daughter, cutting her lip and interfering with a police officer. Bol also was injured and needed medical treatment, West Hartford Police Captain Lori Coppinger said. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. The hospital, citing federal privacy laws, declined to say on Friday if Bol was a patient. Bol, 43, was arrested early Wednesday, police said. He was in court Thursday and is to return on Feb. 26. He also was charged with assault.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to