Sat, Jan 31, 2015 page18

• SPORTS BRIEFS

  • Agencies
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  FOOTBALL

  Team sleep through alarms

  Two false fire alarms that rang through the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl hotel was not enough to rattle the team as several players said on Thursday that they slept through the blaring noise. A false alarm during the night on Monday was followed by another in the early morning hours on Thursday due to a smoke detector that was isolated to one wing of the resort where the team is staying ahead of tomorrow’s Super Bowl between the Patriots and defending champions Seattle Seahawks in Glendale, Arizona. When asked whether there was an issue with the alarm, none of the Patriots players claimed to have been bothered. “If there has, I haven’t heard it. I must be sleeping through it, so that’s good,” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady told reporters. The latest false alarm caused a two-minute disturbance and there were no injuries or reason to evacuate, a spokeswoman for the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass said. The hotel is looking into the cause of the false alarms.

  OLYMPICS

  Torch relay details released

  The torch relay for next year’s Rio Olympics is to visit 250 towns and be carried by 10,000 runners before it arrives for the opening ceremony at the Maracana on Aug. 5, organizers said on Thursday. The flame is to arrive in the country 100 days before the beginning of the Games, although organizers were unable to say from where the relay would start. It is to pass through the capitals of all 26 states as well as the federal capital, Brasilia, taking in 20,000km on the ground and 10,000km by air. Approximately 90 percent of the 200 million Brazilian population should be able to see the relay, organizers said.

  FORMULA ONE

  Mercedes drivers do test run

  Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and teammate Nico Rosberg gave their 2015 Mercedes race car a “shakedown” test at Silverstone on Thursday before a snowstorm forced an end to proceedings. Mercedes said the F1 W06 hybrid car, due to be formally unveiled at the first preseason test in Jerez tomorrow, took to the track in icy conditions for a limited mileage promotional event. “Driven first by Nico Rosberg, then Lewis Hamilton, the car completed a total of 18 laps (47.2 km) before a blizzard brought filming to a halt,” the team said in a statement. Mercedes won both championships last year, with Hamilton taking 11 victories to Rosberg’s five.

  SOCCER

  Stadium may snub matches

  Rio de Janeiro’s famed Maracana stadium, which staged the World Cup finals in 1950 and last year — and is to host the opening and closing ceremonies of next year’s Olympics — might shut its doors to “little” matches. The management of the 78,000-capacity ground believe it makes economic sense to concentrate only on arena-filling teams and events. However, the consortium said on Thursday that no firm decision has yet been taken. “In a stadium of international renown and which can host 78,000 people, small matches have little pulling power for the public as is the case with games played in the carioca [Rio state championship],” the Consortium Maracana said in a statement. They argue that it costs as much to open the Maracana for 2,800 spectators — the average crowd for local football games — as it does for 30,000. The Maracana is also a major venue for concerts — on Sunday last week, US rockers the Foo Fighters brought in US$377,000, the O Globo newspaper reported. The legendary Rio stadium was renovated for last year’s World Cup at a cost of US$500 million.
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