ATHLETICS
Ennis-Hill to receive medal
Jessica Ennis-Hill is to be presented with the heptathlon gold medal from the 2011 world championships at this year’s event in London after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed Russian Tatyana Chernova’s appeal against her doping ban. Briton Ennis-Hill was runner-up to Chernova in Daegu six years ago, but the Russian was stripped of her medals in November last year and received a lengthy ban for blood doping violations. There were concerns about when Ennis-Hill, 31, would receive her medal as Chernova appealed the ban and questioned the jurisdiction of the original hearing. The court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal and stuck with the original judgement.
CRICKET
Bracewell to step down
New Zealander John Bracewell is to step down as head coach of Ireland at the end of his contract in December, the country’s cricket board has said. The former New Zealand coach replaced West Indian Phil Simmons at the helm following the 2015 World Cup and is to step down after two and half years in the role. Last month, the International Cricket Council (ICC) voted to admit Afghanistan and Ireland into the elite group permitted to play traditional five-day Test matches. As new full members of the ICC, Ireland and Afghanistan are to take the total of countries playing Tests to 12. “Having been down the full-on Full Member road before with New Zealand Cricket, it is not my desire to do so again,” Bracewell said in a statement from Cricket Ireland. The board said it would advertise the position of head coach in due course to ensure a seamless transition.
CRICKET
Eranga cleared to bowl
Shaminda Eranga’s bowling action was found to be legal and the paceman has been cleared to resume playing for Sri Lanka more than one year after he was banned, the International Cricket Council has said. Eranga was reported during the second Test against England at Chester-le-Street in May last year and was barred from bowling in international matches when his action was found to be illegal following an independent assessment. “Eranga underwent a reassessment of his bowling action ... with the assessment concluding that the amount of elbow extension in his standard deliveries was within the 15-degree level of tolerance permitted,” the governing body said..
RUGBY UNION
Cooper cut from training
Quade Cooper has been omitted from Australia’s 38-man training squad announced yesterday for the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup, possibly ending the Test career of the flashy, but often unpredictable playmaker. The move leaves Bernard Foley as the only specialist flyhalf in the extended squad picked by Wallabies coach Michael Cheika for a series of training camps starting next week. Kurtley Beale, a utility back who recently returned from England, was recalled to the Wallabies squad for the first time since the 2015 World Cup and is only other potential No. 10 in the initial group. Cooper’s omission is his first based on form since former Wallaby coach Robbie Deans left him out of the 2013 British and Irish Lions series. Cheika did not select any players from the Brumbies, who are hosting a Super Rugby quarter-final against the Hurricanes tomorrow.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A wine merchant who blind tasted a different glass of wine at each mile of the London Marathon on Sunday has said he feels “honored” his challenge went viral on social media, as he surpassed his fundraising target. Tom Gilbey, nicknamed “the wine guy,” sampled 25 glasses of wine during the race, stopping to guess the drink’s grape variety, country of origin and vintage at each mile. A video he posted on TikTok has amassed more than 3.2 million views. He had his first sip at about 9:30am, shortly after the race began. Gilbey said he aimed to raise £2,000 (US$2,487) for Sobell