BASKETBALL
NBA postpones camps
The NBA on Friday said it had postponed training camps and canceled the first week of preseason games as it struggles to reach a new collective bargaining agreement with players. The NBA, in the midst of its first work stoppage in 13 years, said training camps scheduled to open Oct. 3 have been postponed indefinitely and 43 preseason games from Oct. 9 to Oct. 15 have been canceled. “We have regretfully reached the point on the calendar where we are not able to open training camps on time and need to cancel the first week of preseason games,” NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “We will make further decisions as warranted.”
FOOTBALL
Ravens’ Brown dies at 40
Orlando Brown, a former Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle best known for shoving an NFL official in a 1999 game, was found dead at his Baltimore home on Friday. Brown was 40. Police said no cause of death has been determined for Brown, who was dead when firefighters arrived at his home after attempts to contact him proved in vain. Police said there were no signs of trauma or suspicious circumstances. Brown began his NFL career with the Cleveland Browns in 1993 and also played for the Ravens before retiring in 2005. The most notable moment of Brown’s career as an NFL blocker came in 1999 when he was playing for the Browns against Jacksonville and was accidentally struck in the right eye by a penalty flag thrown by official Jeff Triplette. Brown, whose father was blind due to glaucoma, said concern over possible eyesight damage prompted him to push Triplette. Brown was suspended for two weeks, but also spent six days in a hospital with bleeding behind his eye. The injury would cause Brown, who was nicknamed “Zeus,” to miss the next three seasons before he made a comeback with the Ravens in 2003.
BADMINTON
Injured Lin Dan withdraws
World champion Lin Dan withdrew from the Japan Open yesterday with an injured left foot, giving his teammate Chen Long a free ticket to the men’s singles final where he will face defending champion Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia. The Chinese second seed, the sport’s biggest name and the winner in Tokyo in 2004 and 2005, said the skin on his left foot came off after a tough match against another teammate, Chen Jin, in the quarter-finals on Friday. In the women’s singles, Juliane Schenk defeated Indian star Saina Nehwal to set up a final against world champion Wang Yihan of China. The German eighth seed, who eliminated All England champion Wang Shixian of China in the quarter-finals, gained another major scalp with a 21-19, 21-10 victory over the fourth seed. Wang Yihan was given a walkover into the final as fellow Chinese Liu Xin withdrew with a left leg injury.
SOCCER
Colin Klass banned
Guyana Football Association president Colin Klass became the second high-ranking official, and the fourth in all, to be banned for their part in a bribery scandal when world soccer’s ruling body FIFA suspended him on Friday for 26 months. Klass, who was also fined 5,000 Swiss francs (US$5,537), was provisionally suspended on Aug. 11 after the Ethics Committee ruled he had breached their Code of Ethics for his part in the scandal that also led to the lifetime ban for Qatari Mohammed Bin Hammam following a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union in May.
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
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
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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