■SOCCER
‘Dead’ player still alive
An English club held a minute’s silence for one of their former great players — only to find that he was still alive. Bishop Auckland printed tributes to former England amateur international Tommy Farrer in the club program and arranged a death notice in the local paper. But when club chairman Terry Jackson phoned the 86-year-old’s wife, Gladys, to offer his condolences, she stunned him by saying he would be coming back soon — not from the afterlife, but from shopping. Farrer played in three FA Amateur Cup finals at Wembley with northeastern side Bishop Auckland, who were among the top non-professional clubs of the 1940s and 1950s. “We are not upset, but we did think it was a bit of a joke at first,” he told the Northern Echo regional daily newspaper. “Whoever it was who told people I had died obviously contacted the football club and they decided to go the whole hog by arranging the silence. I’m very moved that they went to such trouble.”
■SWIMMING
Manaudou in photo mix-up
A look-alike of former Olympic swimming champion Laure Manaudou appeared on the front page of L’Equipe this week with the woman in question claiming on Friday it had been an invasion of privacy. Manaudou on Wednesday announced she would not be competing this year and a front page photo of the other woman was published by the French sports daily the following day. The paper on Friday said on its front page that Manaudou had contacted them to say it wasn’t her in the photo. They said if that were the case, then they were sorry. The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous but called herself “Claire,” faced the media on Friday with her lawyer. “Apparently, I am the spitting image of Laure Manaudou and I am deeply shocked. The publication of this photo is an invasion of my private life and I learned about the photo from my best friend,” she told journalists. “The problem is that there is now information about me on the Internet and I have learned that I have been followed or risk being followed for several months,” she said.
■SOCCER
Wigan snap up Mido
Wigan on Friday sold Emile Heskey to Aston Villa for £3.5 million (US$4.8 million) and immediately snapped up Egypt striker Mido on loan from Middlesbrough as cover until the end of the season. England forward Heskey’s move to Villa was completed after he passed a medical and agreed personal terms while Mido was being lined up to form an Egyptian double act with compatriot Amr Zaki.
■CRICKET
Smith returns to Windies
Left-hander Devon Smith was recalled to the West Indies squad on Friday for next month’s first test against England while Barbados opener Dale Richards earned his first call-up. Smith, who has opened the batting and filled in a lower middle order slot, was omitted from the recent tests in New Zealand but earned his latest recall thanks to a double century for the Winward Islands in a regional game against Guyana.
Richards, a late developer at 32, has shown consistent form in the regional competitions but will have caught the eye of the selectors with his century against Trinidad and Tobago. There is no place in the squad for Guyana opening bat Sewnarine Chattergoon. Seamer Lionel Baker, of Montserat, retains his place after debuting in the drawn test series in New Zealand.
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
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
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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