SWIMMING
Thorpe disappoints again
Ian Thorpe failed to reach the 100m butterfly final at the Beijing World Cup short-course meet yesterday as the second stop of his hotly anticipated comeback came crashing to a halt. The 29-year-old Australian was 13th overall in the heats with 54.35 seconds, 2.22 seconds off Japanese leader Kosuke Hagino, after also missing the 100m freestyle and 100m individual medley finals on Tuesday. It follows a disappointing return to action for the five-time Olympic champion last weekend in Singapore, when he finished way out of the medals in his first competition in five years. “Thorpedo” is also scheduled to compete in Tokyo this weekend as he builds toward Australia’s Olympic trials in March.
SOCCER
Former Juve boss jailed
Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi was sentenced to five years and four months in jail on Tuesday for his role in the 2006 Calciopoli match-fixing scandal. Fiorentina owners Andrea and Diego Della Valle and SS Lazio president Claudio Lotito received sentences of 15 months, though they will not have to serve them as under Italian law sentences under two years do not require the guilty party to serve time. Paolo Bergamo, the former referees’ selector, was sentenced to three years and eight months in jail. Moggi was judged to be the man chiefly to blame for the scandal and was found guilty on two counts, including sporting fraud.
OLYMPICS
Aussies face medal drought
Australia is facing its lowest overall summer Olympics medal haul in two decades at next year’s London Games, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) forecast yesterday. Based on the latest benchmark results Australia will be struggling to hang on to a top-five finish in the medals tally, a position it has held since 1996, AOC chief John Coates said. Coates said based on the results, which track Australia’s performance in international competitions, Australia would win 35 or 36 medals in London. As an overall medal tally, that would represent the lowest haul since Barcelona in 1992 when Australia finished 10th with 27 medals.
SOCCER
Alcaraz banned for spitting
Wigan Athletic captain Antolin Alcaraz was banned for three matches on Tuesday after admitting a charge of spitting at an opponent during an English Premier League match, the Football Association said in a statement on its Web site. The 19-year-old Paraguayan defender was caught by television cameras spitting at Wolverhampton Wanderers player Richard Stearman in an incident missed by the match officials on Sunday. The Latics are bottom of the table following eight successive defeats and Alcaraz will miss the games against Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland and Arsenal.
SOCCER
Messi to get ‘caganer’
Barcelona star Lionel Messi, a rock ‘n’ roll legend and British royalty will be honored this year by Spain’s “caganer” figurines, a Christmas tradition that shows celebrities in unflattering poses. The figurines have been sold in the Catalonia region around Christmas since the 18th century, when they were placed in nativity scenes in the hope of bringing good luck and a rich harvest, but now they show famous personalities with their bottoms bared in the act of defecating. Customers inclined toward rock music or royal romance can choose between Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger or Britain’s Prince William and his wife, Catherine.
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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