FOOTBALL
School sorry for ‘Hitler’ play
The headmaster of a Connecticut high school has apologized after its football team named one of its plays “Hitler.” Chris Winters, of Greenwich High School, issued the apology on Friday. He called the designation offensive and said the practice has been stopped. The mother of a Trumbull High School player told the Connecticut Post her son’s freshman football team was playing Greenwich on Thursday when the players charged onto the field shouting “Hitler,” adding that the signal for the play was an index finger laid across the upper lip. The team and coaches met with the Connecticut Anti-Defamation League to make sure they understand why it was offensive. The group’s executive director told the newspaper he did not see intent to intimidate or anti-Semitism.
MOTORSPORT
Marquez wins his third title
Honda rider Marc Marquez yesterday secured his third MotoGP championship in four years by winning the Japanese Motorcycle Grand Prix after his nearest rivals, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, both crashed out. The 23-year-old Spaniard had only an outside chance to seal the title, but his win at Twin Ring Motegi gave him an unassailable 77-point lead over Italian Rossi, who started on pole, but slid into the gravel early. Already the youngest rider to win a MotoGP race and the title in his maiden season in 2013, Marquez’s triumph in Japan made him the youngest to seal three championships. He finished nearly three seconds ahead of Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso, with Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales third.
ATHLETICS
Bolt to run last home race
Jamaica’s Olympic sprint champion, Usain Bolt, is to run his last race on home soil at the Racers Grand Prix on June 10 next year before retiring from competition two months later, he said on Friday. The 30-year-old, who won the 100m at this year’s Racers Grand Prix, has already said he plans to retire from the sport after the Aug. 5-13 world championships in London, having won nine Olympic gold medals. “The Racers Grand Prix is to be my last race in Jamaica, people, it will be the last time I run in Jamaica,” Bolt told Television Jamaica’s Smile Jamaica morning magazine program.
SOCCER
Cahill marks debut with goal
Tim Cahill on Saturday marked his A-League debut with a spectacular long-range goal as Melbourne City beat the Melbourne Victory 4-1 to continue its winning form. Cahill, the former Everton forward who is playing in Australian soccer’s domestic competition for the first time in 20 years, lived up to his star billing with his goal in the Melbourne derby in the 27th minute. In front of 40,000 fans, Cahill struck a half-volley from 40m that caught Victory goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas unprepared and sailed into the top corner of the net.
MOTORSPORT
Busch wins three in a row
Kyle Busch on Saturday won his third straight NASCAR Xfinity Series race in Kansas, while Chase contenders Elliott Sadler and Daniel Suarez followed him to the line. Busch started from the pole and led 150 laps for his ninth series win this season, although it was not easy all afternoon. He dropped a lap behind the leaders at one point before getting a wave-around. Fellow Sprint Cup regulars Joey Logano and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five on a damaging day for several drivers starting a three-race round of eight of their title run.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe
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