RUGBY UNION
Tokyo celebrates World Cup
Sports fans yesterday gathered in Tokyo’s Shibuya entertainment district to mark two years until Japan hosts the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the first time the tournament will be held outside the traditional rugby-playing countries. Rugby World Cup tournament director Alan Gilpin unveiled the Webb Ellis Cup, saying “this vibrant and special nation will be the center of the sporting universe for an amazing six weeks.” To promote the tournament, the trophy, which is awarded to the winning team, will make a 46-day tour of the host nation. On Sunday, Gilpin told local organizers that their preparations are not progressing as smoothly as they should.
SOCCER
Giggs, Scholes no-show
Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes have angered Indian fans by failing to turn out for a futsal tournament in which they were billed as the star attractions. The Hindu newspaper said the pair were “understood to be ‘tired’” on their arrival in Bangalore for the event on Tuesday. Scholes, 42, is meant to be captain of the Bangalore team and Giggs, 43, for Mumbai in the Premier Futsal tournament. Scholes did participate in the Mumbai leg of the tournament on Saturday, but the pair were not even on the bench for the first game in Bangalore and fans were not impressed. With the tickets costing as much as US$156, including a “meet and greet session with the legends,” disgruntled fans were quick to dismiss the event as a money-making exercise.
SOCCER
Brazil snub Matildas
The Australian women’s soccer team have taken a dim view of the handshake snub they received from Brazil players after beating the South Americans 3-2 in a home match on Tuesday. At the end of a heated contest in Newcastle, Australia, some Matildas players were ignored as they approached their opponents to shake hands, triggering a storm of criticism on social media. “Not shaking hands, it’s not an Australian thing, but I’m not really going to comment on it because it’s not something I think is very... I don’t really like it, but whatever,” Australia striker Sam Kerr told local media. Matildas coach Alen Stajcic agreed the Australians had rattled Brazil. The sixth-ranked Matildas have won their last five international matches and clinched the inaugural four-team Tournament of Nations in the US last month.
BASEBALL
Gordon hits season record
The Kansas City Royal’s Alex Gordon hit MBL’s record 5,694th home run of the year on Tuesday night, breaking a season record set in 2000 at the height of the steroids-era. Gordon’s home run off the Toronto Blue Jay’s Ryan Tepera, which cut the Royals’ deficit to 5-2, was his eighth this season and the 159th of his 11-year big league career. It was the 17th of the night and came just after the Detroit Tiger’s Alex Presley tied the record when he connected at home against the Oakland Athletic’s Daniel Gossett. There were 5,610 homers last year, an average of 2.31 per game, and this year’s average of 2.53 entering Tuesday’s action projects to 6,139. That would be up 47 percent from 4,186 in 2014. Power subsided after the start of drug testing with penalties in 2004. The home run average dropped in 2014 to its lowest level since 1992.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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