■ Soccer
Guti, Carlos ink contracts
Midfielder Jose Maria "Guti" Gutierrez and defender Roberto Carlos have agreed to extend their contracts with Real Madrid. The 30-year-old Guti extended his contract from 2008 to 2010, while the 33-year-old Roberto Carlos added one season and will finish his contract in 2008, Madrid said on Monday. The Brazilian will have an option to sign for another season. The contracts were to be signed after yesterday's Champions League match against Lyon.
■ Soccer
Adu on trial with United
American teenager Freddy Adu began a two-week trial with English Premier League club Manchester United on Monday. The 17-year-old Adu took part in training with players from the club's youth academy. Man United's senior squad left Monday for Glasgow, Scotland, for its Champions League match against Celtic yesterday. As Adu does not have a British work permit, he is not able to play in a competitive match. Under FIFA transfer rules, Adu, who plays for MLS club D.C. United, is not allowed to transfer to a club outside the US until he turns 18 on June 2 next year. Chelsea has also expressed interest in possibly signing Adu one day.
■ Rugby Union
Pelous, Elissalde out
Captain Fabien Pelous and scrumhalf Jean-Baptiste Elissalde are out of France's rugby union international against Argentina on Saturday. Pelous has not played since breaking a rib in the 47-3 defeat against the All Blacks on Nov. 11. Raphael Ibanez, who led France in its 23-11 loss to New Zealand at the weekend, will remain captain, the French team said on Monday. Elissalde sustained a calf injury in the second game against New Zealand and will be replaced by Pierre Mignoni, the 17-cap scrumhalf with Clermont. Mignoni made his only international appearance this year in France's 62-14 romp over Romania in June.
■ Motorsport
Imola refurbishment begins
Refurbishment work at the Imola race track, venue of the San Marino Grand Prix, has started. The media box and paddock were razed with explosives on Sunday as part of a 10 million euro (US$12.8 million) overhaul of the deteriorating facilities at the 56-year-old track. Imola, which hosted its first Formula One Grand Prix in 1980, was dropped from next year's race calendar for the first time. It's hoping to get back on the calendar.
■ Olympics
Deripaska bets on Sochi
A company controlled by Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska bought the Sochi airport on Monday at a government auction, hoping the city will win the right to stage the 2014 Winter Olympics. Trade and Economic Development Ministry official Igor Konkov said the investment was promising given Sochi's strong Olympic bid, according to RIA-Novosti. Deripaska's holding company, an affiliate of Basic Element, paid 5.5 billion rubles (US$206 million) for the airport.
■ College football
Game floods cell networks
Michigan wasn't the only loser in Saturday's football game against Ohio State: Cellphone users had difficulty making or receiving calls in the packed Ohio Stadium. A crowd of 105,708 inside the stadium and tens of thousands of fans surrounding it flooded cell suppliers during the game, stretching the capabilities of the networks, major providers said. Verizon, which brought in a portable call relayer or "cell on wheels," had a 60 percent increase in the traffic it typically handles in the area on non-game days, spokesman Don Carretta said on Monday. He was not aware of any customer complaints and the number of calls was not unusual for a game, concert or other large-scale public event, he said. "Any event where you have a large volume of people in a small area, you have problems," Carretta said. Cingular also anticipated the crush of calls and wheeled in a mobile cell site, said Chris Bondurant, executive director of network services.
■ Tennis
Russia's cup team named
Marat Safin and Nikolay Davydenko will play for Russia in the Davis Cup final against Argentina. Mikhail Youzhny and Dmitry Tursunov will also be on the team, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Both teams were due to be officially announced by the International Tennis Federation yesterday. The final is scheduled for Dec. 1 to Dec. 3 and will be played on carpet at the Olympic Indoor Stadium in Moscow.
■ Boxing
Hatton to hit Vegas
British fighter Ricky Hatton will challenge Colombia's Juan Urango for his former IBF light-welterweight title in Las Vegas on Jan. 20. Hatton relinquished the WBA welterweight title he won by beating Luis Collazo in Boston in May. He is moving up a division to try to reclaim the IBF crown he took from Kostya Tszyu in June last year. Hatton hopes to line up a fight against former two-time WBC lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo, who is scheduled to appear on the same card in Las Vegas. It will be Hatton's first fight in the city. "It was always one of my goals to top the bill in Las Vegas," he said on Monday. "The era of Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Duran was what got me into boxing and all their fights were there." The unbeaten Urango claimed the vacant IBF title with a win over Naoufel Ben Rabah last June in Hollywood, Florida.
■ College Football
Talley closes in on record
John Talley only wishes his Duke team could have enjoyed his success. The senior cornerback had a spectacular season, but the Blue Devils suffered through a woeful one (0-11, 0-7). They've lost 19 straight and haven't beaten a Division I-A team in more than two years. Talley leads the Atlantic Coast Conference with seven interceptions and is tied for fourth nationally. "It's real tough, because I'm not one to brag or boast about my individual stats," Talley said Monday. "I'd love to have the wins instead of personal success." Talley enters his final college game against rival North Carolina with 18 career interceptions, two shy of the record held by the Tar Heels' Dre Bly. He might have a shot to tie or surpass that mark, because no ACC team has thrown more interceptions than the Tar Heels No. 17. "He's a guy who hasn't really ever wavered," coach Ted Roof said. "He's only gotten stronger and better in the way that he works and the way that he approaches the game."
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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