■ICE HOCKEY
Coyotes’ chairman resigns
Jeff Shumway resigned as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the financially troubled Phoenix Coyotes on Friday. Shumway had served as CEO of the Coyotes since April 2006. He was relinquishing his duties with the NHL team to manage other business ventures of team owner Jerry Moyes. “Jeff has done a great job in managing the team for me but right now I need him to focus on some of my other projects,” Moyes said in a statement. The 51-year-old Shumway’s resignation removes an upper layer of management for the team coached by Wayne Gretzky. Moyes will take over as the Coyotes’ governor on the NHL Board of Governors, and president Doug Moss and general manager Don Maloney will report directly to Moyes.
■ICE HOCKEY
Players decline agreement
The executive board of the NHL Players’ Association turned down an opportunity to reopen the collective bargaining agreement with the NHL on Friday, ensuring labor peace through the 2010-2011 season. The union had until May to decide, but chose to make the announcement early during NHL All-Star weekend. The players’ association can extend the deal, which ended the yearlong lockout in 2005, for another season if it chooses. That determination won’t have to be made until May 2011. The NHL held out to get a “cost-certainty” model and finally convinced the union to accept a salary cap system after the 2004-2005 season was canceled due to the lockout.
■BASKETBALL
Iavaroni fired by Grizzlies
The Memphis Grizzlies announced the firing of coach Marc Iavaroni on Friday. The Grizzlies also said assistant coach Johnny Davis would take over the National Basketball Association team on an interim basis. In one-and-a-half seasons, Iavaroni compiled a 33-90 record. The Memphis Commercial Appeal is reporting that former Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins, now an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, will be eventually be named as Iavaroni’s replacement. The newspaper said that Hollins plans to bring with him former Philadelphia 76ers coach Maurice Cheeks and former Los Angeles Clippers coach Barry Heckler.
■ICE HOCKEY
Jazz owner has surgery
Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller, who suffers from diabetes, underwent double amputation surgery on Friday. As part of the operation, Miller’s lower legs were amputated 15cm below each knee. Miller has type two diabetes and the Jazz said his recovery could take months. “Larry is doing well and is expected to continue to recover in the coming weeks and months,” said Greg Miller, chief executive of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies. The 64-year-old business tycoon Miller has owned the Jazz for 23 years.
■FOOTBALL
Chiefs’ head coach fired
Herm Edwards, the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs during the worst two-year span in team history, was fired on Friday. Edwards goes out with a three-year regular-season record of 15-33 and with one year remaining on a four-year, US$12 million contract. As head coach of the New York Jets in 2001-2005, he had a regular-season mark of 39-41 and was 2-3 in the playoffs. Edwards had been waiting to learn his fate since president and general manager Carl Peterson abruptly resigned on Dec. 15. When Scott Pioli was introduced as Peterson’s successor on Jan. 13, he was noncommittal and said only that he intended to speak with Edwards.
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