■ Athletics
Tolossa wins in Honolulu
Ethiopia's Ambessee Tolossa won the Honolulu Marathon on Sunday in 2 hours, 13 minutes, 42 seconds. Tolossa pulled away from defending champion Jimmy Muindi at 37km and picked up his pace as he headed toward the finish line. Muindi was second in 2:14:39. Lyubov Denisova of Russia won the women's race in a course-record 2:27:19.
■ Athletics
Kahugu wins in Las Vegas
Joseph Kahugu passed fellow Kenyan Noah Talam near the 23km mark to take control of the men's race and got by female champion Jemima Jelagat with about 800m left to win the male-female challenge prize on Sunday at the Las Vegas Marathon. Kahugu won in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 16 minutes, 43 seconds to earn US$65,000, with US$50,000 coming from winning "The Challenge" and US$15,000 for finishing first in the men's race. Talam was the second male finisher. "The first half was easy," Kahugu said. "But the second half was harder for me."
■ Rugby Union
Sailor drops appeal
Australian rugby international Wendell Sailor has withdrawn his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a two-year drugs ban. Sailor was suspended in July after a test taken in April revealed traces of cocaine. "I have decided to withdraw my appeal in the Court of Arbitration of Sport against the two-year ban imposed on me by the [Australian Rugby Union] anti-doping tribunal," Sailor said in a statement yesterday. "I cannot stress enough that I did not and would never have attempted to cheat in sport through any means. Nothing in fact would be more against my beliefs than doing so through the use of drugs," Sailor said. "Unfortunately I, like many other young Australians, fell to the off-field temptation of a so-called `party drug.'"
■ Rugby sevens
Fiji still welcome
New Zealand's ban on sporting contacts with Fiji following the military coup will not apply to the world champion sevens rugby team, Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday. She said any ban on the Fiji team from the Wellington round of the world sevens series would cost New Zealand its hosting rights. "There would be massive damage to Wellington, this is the single biggest event that Wellington hosts in a year as far as I'm aware," she told Television One. Opposition parties have called for New Zealand's coup sanctions to apply to the popular sevens rugby team. But Clark said the government did not ban Fiji from the sevens after the 2000 coup and was adopting the same policy this time. New Zealand has banned high-level political contact with Fiji, its soldiers are not being allowed to visit New Zealand and aid has been frozen.
■ Cricket
ESPN wins telecast rights
Sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports has won the International Cricket Council telecast rights for an eight-year period starting next year, a news report from the Press Trust of India (PTI) said. Industry sources said ESPN will pay US$1.1 billion after outbidding Nimbus Communications, which offered US$900 million, the report said. Besides the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, the rights will cover the ICC's major tournaments such as the next four Champion's Trophy matches, Women's World Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, PTI said.
■ Tennis
Haarhuis defends title
Defending champion Paul Haarhuis beat Goran Ivanisevic on Sunday to win the BlackRock Masters, the season-ending Tour of Champions event. The 40-year-old Dutchman won the deciding tiebreaker 10-7 after winning the first set 7-6 (4) and dropping the second 7-5. Haarhuis picked up a check for US$100,000 for his second straight victory at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Ivanisevic, the 2001 Wimbledon champion, served 19 aces. Haarhuis, who came back from 5-2 down in the tiebreaker, closed out the match with his 11th ace.
■ Swimming
Popchanka breaks record
Alena Popchanka of France broke the European record in winning the women's 200m freestyle final on Sunday at the European Short Course Championships. Popchanka, who was born in Belarus, finished in 1 minute, 54.25 seconds. Melanie Marshall of Britain, who finished eighth and last, set the old mark of 1:54.53 in January. Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland was runner-up in 1:54.39 and defending champion Josefin Lillhage of Sweden came third in 1:54.75. Peter Mankoc of Slovenia won the men's 100m medley final in 53.05. Six-time world champion Jani Sievinen of Finland finished fifth in what was the final race of his career.
■ Boxing
Maskaev retains title
Oleg Maskaev defended his WBC heavyweight crown on Sunday with a unanimous decision over Peter Okhello in the first world title fight held in Russia. Maskaev kept Okhello backpedaling in the early rounds at the Olympisky Stadium on Moscow and in the 10th round battered him to a standstill with short shots to the head. Maskaev was born in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union, but has lived in the US for a decade and is a US and Russian citizen, Russian President Vladimir Putin having granted Maskaev Russian citizenship a day before the bout. The 37-year-old Maskaev (34-5, 26 knockouts) captured the WBC title in August with a 12th-round knockout of Hasim Rahman. Okhello, a 34-year-old Ugandan who lives in Japan, dropped to 18-8 with 16 KOs.
■ Awards
Royal wins sports award
Zara Phillips won a British sports personality award on Sunday -- 35 years after her mother, Princess Anne, who also won the honor for her equestrian performances. Phillips, who is a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, was named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year -- an award voted on by the public. Golfer, Darren Clarke, was second with gymnast, Beth Tweddle, third. The 25-year-old Phillips won the individual gold in the three-day eventing competition at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
RSS