SOCCER
Lazio reach quarter-finals
SS Lazio beat 10-man Torino 3-1 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia and extend their unbeaten run to eight games. Keita Balde put Lazio ahead after 13 minutes and Miroslav Klose doubled the lead in the 29th. Josef Martinez pulled one back for Torino in the 49th, but Torino goalkeeper Daniele Padelli was sent off for a foul on Klose in the 55th and Cristian Ledesma converted the ensuing penalty. Lazio have gone six games unbeaten in Serie A and two in Cup play. Lazio face AC Milan, who beat US Sassuolo 2-1 on Tuesday. Elsewhere, Parma beat Cagliari 2-1. Gabriel Paletta and Andrea Rispoli scored goals for Parma, while Cagliari’s Marco Sau got one.
SOCCER
South Africa win warm-up
South Africa extended their unbeaten run to 12 matches with a 3-0 rout of fancied Mali in an Africa Cup of Nations warm-up match in Gabon on Wednesday. Goals from Thulani Hlatshwayo, Sibusiso Vilakazi and Dean Furman set up the morale-boosting victory for Bafana Bafana ahead of tomorrow’s start of the continental championship. Both sides fielded strong lineups in their last game before traveling to Equatorial Guinea, but it was South Africa who created the better openings. Mali are in Group D at the finals with Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Guinea, while South Africa have a tougher challenge in Group C, which includes top-ranked Algeria, as well as Ghana and Senegal.
FOOTBALL
Colts player charged
Indianapolis Colts linebacker Josh McNary has been charged with rape after a 29-year-old woman was allegedly held against her will in an apartment following a night of downtown bar hopping. US prosecutors have charged the 26-year-old McNary, of Houston, Texas, with one count of rape, one count of criminal confinement and one count of battery resulting in bodily injury, court documents show. The alleged incident took place on Dec. 1 last year. The woman said she finished work at 11:30pm then met up with some friends. They visited a few different bars before she ended up at an “unknown apartment” in the early morning hours with a man she had just met, court documents say. According to court documents, the two ended up in the bedroom where he tried to kiss her. The woman said the man got upset when she told him to stop and prevented her from leaving. “He scared me — intimidated me and scared me,” she told police. The woman said she grabbed a cellphone as she left the apartment and police say they later traced it to McNary. The Colts said they are trying to gather more information about what happened. “We are aware that there has been a report about Josh McNary, but unfortunately that’s the limit of our knowledge,” the team said.
BOXING
Pacquiao waits on signature
Manny Pacquiao was on his way to Los Angeles on Wednesday, preparing for a meeting with contestants of the Miss Universe pageant. Whether he has an even bigger date on May 2 seems entirely up to Floyd Mayweather Jr. Promoter Bob Arum says Pacquiao has agreed to all terms for what would be boxing’s richest-ever fight, a bout with Mayweather that fans have been demanding for five years. The question is whether the long-reluctant Mayweather will finally sign on the dotted line for what could be an astonishing US$120 million payday for the fighter who flaunts his money better than anyone. Arum says the fight would be held at the MGM in Las Vegas, where Mayweather has fought exclusively for years.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
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