FOOTBALL
Olympics a step closer
Football took a small step closer to potential inclusion in the Olympics on Tuesday. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board granted provisional recognition to the international association that oversees the US sport. The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) had 64 member nations spanning six continents. USA Football governs the sport in the US and is associated with the NFL. A vote on approving football for the Summer Games could take place as early as 2017, with the possibility of the sport joining the Olympics in 2024. IOC sports director Christophe Dubi praised football’s federation for demonstrating “strong youth appeal and making great progress in developing their sport around the world.”
RUGBY LEAGUE
Ferguson guilty of groping
Australian State of Origin rugby league representative Blake Ferguson has been found guilty of groping a young woman at a Sydney bar earlier this year. A Sutherland Local Court yesterday found Ferguson indecently touched the 24-year-old woman in a late-night incident on June 16. Ferguson’s defense argued he mistook the victim for another blonde woman he had been kissing at another venue earlier that night. Magistrate Jacqueline Trad said Ferguson’s actions violated standards of decency. He will be sentenced early next year. Ferguson, 23, who represented New South Wales in this year’s State of Origin series, has played for the Cronulla Sharks and Canberra Raiders in the National Rugby League. He was dropped by the Raiders in September for his off-field behavior.
FORMULA ONE
Vettel slams rule changes
Four-time Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel has ridiculed a decision to give double points in the final race of the upcoming seasons, calling it “absurd.” The German driver says the decision by the sport’s governing body “punishes those who have worked hard for a whole season.” The idea behind the decision is to add more suspense to the season’s finale. Vettel won this season’s title with three races to spare. Vettel says he respects “old traditions in the Formula One” and does not understand the new rule. Vettel told Sport-Bild magazine: “Imagine if there were suddenly double points in the final round of the Bundesliga.”
TENNIS
Murray to skip BBC awards
Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has decided not to attend Sunday’s BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year awards ceremony, despite being the hot favorite to take the top prize. The Scot was installed as the front-runner for the prestigious award immediately following his historic win over Novak Djokovic in July made him the first British men’s singles victor at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936. Murray had considered being present at the hugely popular ceremony in Leeds, but in the end, decided to stay at his training base in Miami, where he is working his way back to fitness after an operation on his lower back in September. Instead, the 26-year-old Murray will link up with the show live by video from Florida, as he did last year, when he was presented with the third-placed trophy by former heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis. The world No. 4 intends to train every day up to and including Christmas Day before flying to Abu Dhabi, where he is due to begin his season on Dec. 26 with a match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Murray says he does not want his decision to be seen as a snub to the award or the BBC.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
‘GLOBAL PRESSURE’: LA’s Dave Roberts said that it was difficult to appreciate the ‘pressure on a global scale’ his starter was under ‘pitching for his country’ The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out US$1 billion for Japanese talent in the off-season and it is paying off in the MLB playoffs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic post-season matchup of Japanese-born starters, while the Dodgers got home runs from Kike Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 and advance to the National League Championship Series. “It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said. Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a
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