■ Soccer
Davis improving after stroke
Luton defender Sol Davis was making a "steady improvement" on Monday after suffering a stroke while traveling to a Football League Championship match. The 27-year-old was undergoing further tests on his heart and brain at a hospital in Cambridge, which is en route to Ipswich. Davis was taken ill on Saturday on the team bus -- a day before Luton's 5-0 defeat at Ipswich. Doctors expect Davis to make a full recovery, Luton manager Mike Newell told the club's Web site. "The early indications that they've given us were that it could be anything between three and six months, but they did also say it could be less than that," Newell said. Newell said the MRI scan showed the stroke was caused by a blockage to the brain. "The most important thing is that he makes a full recovery," Newell said.
■ Boxing
Berbick suspect's mom held
The mother of a 20-year-old suspect is being questioned in connection with the brutal murder of former world heavyweight boxing champ Trevor Berbick, police said. The woman has been involved in a running land dispute with Berbick, Radio Jamaica reported on Monday. Both were being held on "reasonable suspicion" Jamaican police said. No one has been charged. Earlier news reports said that police may have found the murder weapon. Berbick's body was found in a pool of blood early on Saturday morning outside a church next to his home in the Norwich District, 64km northeast of Kingston. Berbick finished his boxing career with a record of 50 wins, 11 losses and one drawn.
■ Olympics
EBU protests finals decision
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has formally protested the IOC's decision to hold some Olympic swimming and gymnastic finals in the morning during the 2008 Beijing Games. The International Olympic Committee announced the changes last week in a concession to US broadcaster NBC, but the EBU said the timing of the finals will put them in the middle of the night in Europe. "With this decision the IOC ends the tradition of staging these finals in the evening," said the EBU, which represents public service broadcasters in Europe and neighboring regions. The EBU said it told the IOC that the decision meant "viewers in Europe as well as the vast majority of the global TV audience will be disadvantaged." The events will be staged during prime viewing hours in the US.
■ Basketball
Yao out of China squad
Houston Rockets superstar Yao Ming has not been included in China's Asian Games basketball squad, which is led by former Miami Heat player Wang Zhizhi. Yao is committed to the Rockets and his multimillion dollar endorsement deals with the regular season starting this week, leaving 2.14m center Wang as their key player. Sun Yue, Liu Wei, Yi Jianlian, Du Feng, Zhu Fangyu, Wang Shipeng, Li Nan, Zhang Jinsong and Mo Ke form the core of their 16-man squad, which won last year's Asian Championships. Wang is back in the fold after refusing to play for China as he pursued a four-year NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers and Miami Heat, which meant he missed the last Asian Games in Busan in 2002. A public apology in April this year saw him return to national duty as China seek to regain the Asian title they lost four years ago in a thrilling final won by South Korea 102-100 in overtime.
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
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