SOCCER
Hosts ‘saved Africa’s honor’
Equatorial Guinea “saved Africa’s honor” by stepping in to host the Africa Cup of Nations at the last minute, organizers said on Friday. The local organizing committee also said the tournament in the oil-rich country — which replaced Morocco in November last year following the latter’s withdrawal over Ebola fears — had been hitch-free so far despite late venue changes for two of this weekend’s quarter-finals. “We are proud that the Nations Cup was not staged outside Africa. It has been in Equatorial Guinea under the best conditions. We saved Africa’s honor,” local organizing committee head Francisco Pascual Obama Asue said. The tournament might have been held in Qatar had Equatorial Guinea not stepped in when they did. “African football and youths are the winners and this is a source of pride to all of us and also the whole of Africa,” he said. “We had only 50 days to prepare for this tournament, but we worked very hard, day and night.” Asue, who is also his country’s sports minister, also disclosed that he expects the cup hosts to spend more than what they budgeted for the tournament, although he would not divulge any figures. Meanwhile, Confederation of African Football director of communications Junior Binyam insisted the decision to move two quarter-final matches away from Mongomo and Ebebiyin was only taken after due consultation with all the parties involved.
FIGURE SKATING
Sleepy Spaniard takes title
Spain’s Javier Fernandez claimed a third successive European men’s figure skating title on Friday despite almost falling asleep as the competition reached its conclusion. Fernandez added the title to his two world bronze medals thanks to a score of 173.25 in the free program for a total score of 262.49 points. The 23-year-old Spaniard, performing to The Barber of Seville, became the first three-in-a-row champion since Russia’s Alexander Fadeev in the 1980s. Russia’s Maxim Kovtun finished on 235.68, while fellow Russian Sergei Voronov scored 233.05. The only blemish for Fernandez was his failure to land a quadruple jump, falling on the second leap and pulling out of the third. “I have never experienced a competition this tiring before. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t even bow to the audience at the end. I was so exhausted,” the champion said. “Somebody said maybe it’s because the air was a little bit dry. I don’t know what the reason was, but I felt like I was ready to go to sleep.” On his historic performance, Fernandez added: “This medal is more important than a regular European medal because it’s three times in a row.
ATHLETICS
Russian might lose medal
Russian athlete Yulia Zaripova faces losing her gold medal in the 3,000m steeplechase from the 2012 London Olympics after being banned for doping. The Russian anti-doping agency banned Zaripova on Friday for two years and six months. The suspension was backdated from July 2013, which leaves her eligible to compete in next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The agency says Zaripova’s results would be annulled for parts of 2011 and 2012, dates which include her Olympic victory, but not her world championship gold medal in 2011. Agency chief executive Ramil Khabriev said in a statement that Zaripova’s biological passport data indicated “the use of a banned method” for replicating high-altitude conditions. The Olympic silver medalist in London was Habiba Ghribi of Tunisia. Sofia Assefa of Ethiopia won the bronze. Russian athletics has faced repeated doping scandals in recent months.
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
RSS