OLYMPICS
IOC boss lauds Sochi
Newly elected International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach said on Thursday last week that Russia was ready to provide “excellent conditions” for athletes at the Winter Olympics in February next year. “We are very pleased with preparations,” Bach told a news conference in Tokyo where he was visiting for the first time since the Japanese capital won the right in September to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. “The athletes will have excellent conditions in Sochi,” said the German, who visited the Black Sea resort last month where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bach said the quality of the Olympic village was good and it was close to competition venues. “Having stayed in quite a number of Olympic villages, I can say I was really, really impressed,” he said.
GOLF
Video replays shunned
Golf took another stand against video evidence on Tuesday by announcing a new decision that it would not penalize a player whose ball moves at rest if the movement is only detected by enhanced pictures. It was the second time in the last two years that the US Golf Association and Royal & Ancient have established new guidelines involving video. The next edition of Decisions on the Rules of Golf effective from Jan. 1 will include three new decisions, the most significant being 18/4. It says that when “enhanced technological evidence” shows that a ball moved, it will not be deemed to have moved if not “reasonably discernible to the naked eye at the time.” Decision 18/4 was an offshoot of Decision 33-7/4.5 in 2011. Under that decision, officials can waive disqualification for an incorrect scorecard if a player was unaware of a rules violation.
SOCCER
Germany player killed
It has been confirmed that former Germany youth international Burak Karan, 25, died during an air raid on the Syrian town of Azaz last month, after allegedly traveling there to assist anti-Assad forces. Tributes from his teammates and managers have been pouring in. Kevin-Prince Boateng, the former Tottenham and Milan midfielder, wrote on Twitter: “RIP my brother Burak. K!! I will never forget our time together, you were a true friend. Burak was a close friend of mine in my youth. What happened afterwards I don’t know, nor can I influence it!!!” A video of Karan posted on YouTube fueled speculation that the player became radicalized after retiring from sport. It shows him wearing a turban and carrying a machine gun. Text below the video claimed that “he left home to fight fisabilillah [for the sake of Allah] against [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad’s injustice.” Karan’s elder brother Mustafa claims he had traveled to the Turkish-Syrian border mainly to collect donations and guarantee their fair distribution.
RUGBY
Ban for dangeous tackle
Australia center Tevita Kuridrani has received a five-week suspension for a dangerous tackle on Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony in Australia’s 32-15 victory in Dublin on Saturday. Kuridrani received a straight red card for the tackle in the 72nd minute and appeared at an International Rugby Board disciplinary hearing on Tuesday. The suspension ruled Kuridrani out of Australia’s final two games on their end of season tour against Scotland and Wales, placing greater pressure on coach Ewen McKenzie’s playing stocks. McKenzie suspended six players from their game against Scotland after they breached team protocols in the lead-up to the Ireland Test.
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
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