AMERICAN FOOTBALL
Elliott denies violence
Dallas Cowboys rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott has denied an accusation of domestic violence by a former girlfriend in Ohio. A woman who said she used to live with Elliott filed a report with the Columbus Police Department on Friday, accusing the former Ohio State University star of assaulting her. She told police that she had pain in her right wrist and a red mark, but had declined medical treatment, according to the report. Elliott, who turned 21 years old on Friday, denied the accusations as well as the accuser’s claim that they lived together. The player has not been arrested or charged with any crime. Elliott’s father, Stacy Elliott, released a statement on Friday, saying: “The reported allegations and internet postings regarding our son are completely false. Ezekiel has done nothing wrong. The police have investigated this matter and eyewitnesses have verified the lack of any wrongdoing.”
SPORTS SCIENCE
Banned biochemist shot at
A sports scientist banned from working in Australia’s top two professional leagues in the wake of a scandal over the use of peptides has suffered a minor injury after shots were fired at his home in Melbourne, Australia, local media reported yesterday. Stephen Dank, 52, was discharged from hospital early yesterday after being treated for a graze on his forehead caused by a fragment of a bullet fired at his house in Ascot Vale in the early hours of the morning, ABC reported. Biochemist Dank was at the center of scandals over supplements programs at Australian rules football club Essendon and rugby league team Cronulla Sharks, which resulted in bans for players and staff at both organizations. Victoria Police confirmed in a statement that they are investigating the firing of “several” shots at the house that injured a “52-year-old man” and that the “one other person” in the house had not been injured.
BASKETBALL
Boston not to host All-Stars
Boston is apparently out of the running for next year’s NBA All-Star game, which became available after the league decided to move the event out of Charlotte, North Carolina. A spokeswoman for the TD Garden told the Boston Globe on Friday that the arena where the Boston Celtics play would be unable to host the game in February next year because of a scheduling conflict. Democratic US House of Representatives Speaker Robert DeLeo on Thursday wrote a tweet urging the NBA to play the game in Massachusetts, where lawmakers recently approved a transgender rights law. The league pulled the game out of Charlotte because of its objections to a North Carolina law that limits anti-discrimination protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people.
SKIING
Austria faces lawsuit
The European Commission is taking Austria to the Court of Justice of the European Union for discriminating against foreign ski instructors. In the southern province of Tyrol, for example, foreign instructors are not allowed to accept clients who were already in Austria. The commission also criticized the Styria region for not accepting some foreign ski instructor qualifications. “Such requirements are contrary to EU law,” it said in a statement. Tyrol Governor Guenther Platter said he would first analyze the lawsuit before taking any further steps. “We will not accept that foreign ski schools will lower security and quality standards which we in Tyrol have built up over decades,” Platter said in a statement.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
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