■TENNIS
Star going to college
Three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten is going to college. Kuerten, a former top-ranked player who retired from the circuit last year, found out on Monday that he had won admission to attend a theater college in his hometown of Florianopolis in southern Brazil. He is scheduled to begin classes on Feb. 16, spokeswoman Clarissa Machado Santos said. Kuerten is one of Brazil’s biggest sporting idols, and when he took the admission test last year security was needed to prevent fans from bothering him. The 32-year-old Kuerten gave up professional tennis last year because of a chronic hip injury that required surgery in 2002 and 2004. He won 20 singles titles in his 15-year career, including at Roland Garros in 1997, 2000 and 2001.
■SUMO
President praises sumo
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov told Japanese Emperor Akihito on Monday that the traditional Japanese sport of sumo wrestling is bringing their two countries closer together, officials said. Parvanov made the remark when he and his wife were received by Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace on the second day of their visit to Japan, the Imperial Household Agency said. Bulgarian wrestler Kotooshu, 25, whose real name Kaloyan Mahlyanov, last year became the first European to win a bimonthly professional sumo tournament. In 2005, he became the first European to become reach the rank of ozeki, the second-highest in sumo. “Thanks to Kotooshu, sumo is well known in Bulgaria and people are feeling closer to Japan,” Parvanov was quoted by the agency as telling the emperor and the empress. Kotooshu has a huge following in Japan and is adored for his good looks.
■RUGBY UNION
English team loses 194-3
Coventry Saracens suffered the worst-ever defeat in an English league match at the weekend when they lost 194-3 to Alcester but won praise from their opponents for playing the match despite having only eight players. “We dropped three forwards out of the scrum to make it five against three in the scrums but all credit to Coventry Saracens for honoring the fixture,” Alcester captain Scott Carmichael told the Rugby Football Union. “A lot of clubs would have cried off, but they turned up and insisted that the game went ahead so they deserve a lot of credit. They have gone up in our estimation and we appreciated their efforts,” he said. Alcester ran in 32 tries in the Midlands West Six match to surpass the previous highest score in a game in England, 177-3 set by Norwich in a Norfolk Cup match against Eccles & Attleborough 13 years ago. The tally fell well short of the world record score of 350-0 set by French third division side Lavardac against Vergt in 1984 when the losers refused to tackle in protest at having players suspended. Vergt conceded 66 tries, which were then valued at four points each.
■SOCCER
Ancelotti blasts Mourinho
AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti turned up the title heat on Inter rival Jose Mourinho by accusing him of a lack of respect. Mourinho was sent to the stands by referee Domenico Celi after he charged out of his dug-out to protest a decision during Sunday’s 1-0 win over Sampdoria. He later accused Celi of lacking experience and being afraid of giving a decision to Inter but Ancelotti hit out at the former Chelsea boss. “I don’t believe Celi was afraid. And I believe Mourinho has lacked respect in his manner of confronting the referee and I believe the decision to send him off was justified,” he said.
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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