HORSE RACING
McNamara dies, aged 41
Irish jockey J.T. McNamara, who was paralyzed after a fall three years ago, has died, aged 41, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) said on its Web site on Tuesday. McNamara rode more than 600 winners in his career, including Teaforthree in the 2012 National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham. “We are extremely saddened to hear of the passing of J.T. McNamara” BHA chief executive Nick Rust said. “None of us will forget his four Cheltenham Festival winners, in which his remarkable talent was so clearly highlighted. Nor will we forget the day of his accident.” Father of three McNamara fractured two vertebrae in his neck in a fall on Galaxy Rock at Cheltenham in 2013. Twenty-times champion jockey A.P. McCoy led the tributes, saying: “He was a very tough man. He was a brilliant man and a brilliant amateur jockey.”
SOCCER
Guardiola bans pizza
Pizza is off the menu for Manchester City players, as coach Pep Guardiola has imposed strict weight parameters on the squad — breaching of which is to result in training bans, defender Gael Clichy said. Guardiola has added four players, including winger Nolito and German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, to the City ranks, hoping to rebuild the squad after the club stumbled to a fourth-placed finish last season. “With him, if your weight is too high, you are not training with the team,” Clichy told British media, while also praising the coach’s eye for detail. “He has also cut out some juices and, of course, pizza, and all the heavy food is not allowed... He just wants us to trust him, he wants to trust us and I think it is the right way to start a relationship.”
FOOTBALL
Nelson put on PUP list
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson, who has been trying to recover from a right-knee injury that sidelined him last season, has tweaked his other knee, leading the team to put him on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. “It is not the [right] ACL [anterior cruciate ligament]. No one needs to freak out,” Nelson told NFL.com on Tuesday. “I am not going into details of stuff. You guys know I do not like to talk about injuries... We are all on the same page, we are going to be back hopefully — not worried about it.” Nelson was knocked out of last season’s campaign when he was injured during the pre-season. He suffered the latest setback while working out and did not have a time line for a return.
CRICKET
Australia bowled out for 203
Spinners Rangana Herath and Lakshan Sandakan took four wickets each as Sri Lanka dismissed Australia for 203 in their first innings on the second day of the first Test yesterday. Sri Lanka were 6-1 at tea, trailing Australia by 80 runs having been dismissed for 117 in their first innings. Herath bowled opener Joe Burns for 3 and then claimed the prize wickets of captain Steve Smith (30) and Usmal Khawaja (26) before snaring Peter Nevill (2) to finish with 4-49. Sandakan clean bowled Mitchell Marsh for his first Test wicket and had figures of 4-58 on his debut. Adam Voges top scored for Australia with a watchful 47 off 115 balls, featuring only three boundaries. Mitchell Starc claimed the wicket of Kusal Perera, who was out LBW before tea.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
LIVERPOOL WIN: The 50th Champions League goal by Mohamed Salah helped the leaders of the Premier League to keep their perfect record intact Real Madrid’s big stars on Tuesday turned on the style to revive the Spanish giant’s faltering UEFA Champions League title defense. Galacticos Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham all scored in a thrilling 3-2 win against Serie A leaders Atalanta BC. However, Madrid still had to ride their luck as Mateo Retegui fired over from in front of goal in stoppage-time when handed a golden chance to level the game. It was only Madrid’s third win in the competition’s revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champions in the unseeded playoff positions in 18th place. “It’s a very important win. Not everyone wins
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
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