RUGBY LEAGUE
Cause of death confirmed
Wales rugby league international Danny Jones died of a cardiac arrest caused by hereditary heart disease, it was confirmed on Thursday. Jones, 29, collapsed while playing for Keighley in a League 1 game against London Skolars on Sunday and efforts to resuscitate him failed. His family received the initial results of the post-mortem into the death on Thursday, when it was revealed that the heart disease was not detected when the player underwent an ECG scan last year. “Whilst the findings of the post-mortem do provide an explanation for why he died, they allow for little comfort for Danny’s family or all those who knew him,” Keighley chief executive Gary Fawcett said. “His tragically premature death is still very painful for everyone, not least because his heart condition could not even be detected by the ECG. All we can do now is mourn his passing, celebrate his life and do everything we can for Danny’s wife Lizzie, their children Bobby and Phoebe and their wider family.”
RUGBY UNION
England could lose ‘home’
England might be forced to launch their home rugby World Cup bid at Twickenham deprived of the chance of playing in their white kit. Because of the World Cup rules, the hosts could end up playing the tournament’s opening match against Fiji on Sept. 18 in an unfamiliar change strip, which is likely to be red. England could also find themselves having to give up to their Fiji opponents the “home” dressing room that they always use at Twickenham. This is because, although Stuart Lancaster’s men are the hosts, each individual fixture has a “home” team determined by a random draw. That team is given both the first choice of both kit and changing room. So, should the draw go in favor of Fiji and they choose to play in their own white kit and take over England’s normal dressing room, England will have no choice but to don a change strip.
SOCCER
River Plate win first leg
River Plate scored with a late penalty to overcome city rivals Boca Juniors 1-0 on Thursday and take a slender advantage into the second leg of their Libertadores Cup last-16 tie. Carlos Sanchez broke the deadlock from the spot after 81 minutes to give the home side a barely deserved win in a scrappy tie played in front of 62,000 fans at the Monumental Stadium. “The result was a fair one,” Sanchez said. “We showed the right attitude and we ran for 90 minutes.” The bad-tempered match was marked by a number of over-the-ball challenges and off-the-ball incidents. Six players were booked and River’s Teofilo Gutierrez sent off for a nasty challenge just before the end.
BOXING
IBA dumps SportAccord
The International Boxing Association (IBA) has pulled out of the 2017 World Combat Games, an event organized by the SportAccord group, which recently angered Olympic leaders. AIBA says it will no longer take part in the multi-sport combat event being hosted in Lima. The boxing body also says it suspended its 48-year membership of SportAccord, an umbrella group of Olympic and non-Olympic sports federations. SportAccord head Marius Vizer, the International Judo Federation president, criticized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and committee president Thomas Bach in a speech last month in Sochi, Russia. Vizer called the IOC system “expired, outdated, wrong, unfair and not at all transparent.”
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
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