■ENGLAND
Wayne Rooney injured
England’s impressive 1-0 World Cup win over Slovenia on Wednesday which secured a ticket to the last 16 was tainted by an ankle injury suffered by Wayne Rooney. The Manchester United striker had to come off in the 72nd minute at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium, with manager Fabio Capello sending on Joe Cole as a substitute. With their next match coming on Sunday against Germany in Bloemfontein, England will be praying one of their most important players will have made a full recovery in time.
■GERMANY
Trio race to fitness
Germany’s Mesut Ozil, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Jerome Boateng face a race against time to be fit to face England in Sunday’s World Cup last 16 clash, coach Joachim Loew said. The team’s win over Ghana came at a price as Ozil, the man-of-the-match, was left bent over at the final whistle, while vice-captain Schweinsteiger came off after 81 minutes with a muscle injury. And defender Boateng had to be replaced on 73 minutes with a back injury.
■SPAIN
Goalie’s girl gets grilling
The journalist girlfriend of Spain’s goalkeeper was accused of breaching professional ethics on Wednesday after she reported on live television from behind the net ahead of the country’s World Cup loss to Switzerland. Sara Carbonero, whose boyfriend is Spain’s No. 1 keeper Iker Casillas, is a television journalist for Spain’s Telecinco channel, part of the network owned by Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi. British newspapers last week showed a picture of her, microphone in hand, reporting from behind the net just a few meters from Casillas during the warm-up for the match against Switzerland. Spain lost the match 1-0, with Casillas at least partly to blame for the goal, and the British papers speculated that her presence may have distracted him. After the game, Carbonero interviewed Casillas on live television.
■UNITED STATES
Clinton celebrates win
Former US president Bill Clinton got to his feet to celebrate his team’s last-gasp goal against Algeria at the World Cup on Wednesday and gave the players a speech about the American spirit afterwards. “He spent 45 minutes in the locker room,” US Soccer president Sunil Gulati told reporters. “He was so proud of the team — they didn’t get frustrated by the fact they missed some chances today and didn’t let the last game affect them,” he said, referring to a 2-2 draw with Slovenia where they had a late goal disallowed. “That’s the American spirit, that’s what president Clinton said in the locker room after the game,” he said.
■NEW ZEALAND
Parliament scotches holiday
An attempt by a New Zealand lawmaker to create a public holiday to mark the achievements of its World Cup soccer team has been rejected by the nation’s Parliament. Labour Party minister Trevor Mallard tried yesterday to introduce a bill to Parliament which would have created a public holiday after New Zealand’s final group match against Paraguay. Government members opposed the introduction of the bill and it was thrown out of the house in barely 15 seconds. The Paraguay match is to be shown in the early hours of the morning New Zealand time and Mallard said loyal football fans deserved a day off as a reward for supporting their team.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Taiwanese martial artists bagged one gold, four silver and three bronze medals at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Brunei, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei Darussalam said yesterday. Liu Yu-tzu won the gold medal in the girl’s taijiquan A group and also picked up a silver medal in the girl’s taijijian A group. Hu Hsin-ling, Yu Min-hsun and Chen Chao-hsiang each won a silver medal in the girl’s jianshu B, boy’s nangun B and boy’s taijijian A groups respectively. Hu also won a bronze medal in the girl’s qiangshu B group, while Yu and Lin Shih-hung picked up bronze medals
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