FORMULA ONE
Netflix to document season
Netflix is to make a documentary series chronicling this Formula One season, which is to be screened next year, the sport’s rights holders announced on Saturday. Formula One said the makers of the 10-part series would have unparalleled and exclusive access over the course of the year to the drivers, team bosses and owners, as well as the sport’s management team. “Formula One is a global sport that we are actively repositioning from a motorsport company to a media and entertainment brand,” F1’s managing director of commercial operations Sean Bratches said in a statement. “The agreement with Netflix serves to chronicle the fascinating story of what transpires behind the scenes during a Grand Prix season... This series will unleash a compelling vantage point to the sport that will delight fans and serve as a catalyst to entice new fans.”
BASKETBALL
Curry out for three weeks
Stephen Curry is to miss at least three weeks with a sprained left knee, meaning the Golden State Warriors are to be without their second-leading scorer for the rest of the regular season. Curry could be back at the start of the playoffs next month if all goes well in rehabbing his latest injury. The team said Curry would be re-evaluated in three weeks — that would be April 14 and a possible Game 1 of the playoffs for Golden State. Curry had on Friday returned from a six-game absence after his latest right ankle injury, only to injure his left knee. The defending champions were already without their three other All-Stars: Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Green was likely to be back from a bruised pelvis for yesterday’s home game against Utah. Durant is still recovering from a broken rib and Thompson has a fractured right thumb.
SOCCER
Owner on trafficking charges
The owner of reigning Greek champions Olympiakos and English Championship club Nottingham Forest has been charged with drug trafficking. Evangelos Marinakis is being prosecuted for “possession and trafficking of drugs” and for “associating with criminals,” a judiciary source said on Friday. Prosecutors in Piraeus have also banned Marinakis from leaving Greece because of a probe into the financing of a company that chartered the Noor1, a petrol tanker that was seized off the Greek coast in June 2014 with 2 tonnes of heroin on board. Marinakis has furiously denied the charges.
MARATHON
Ethiopan sets half record
Ethiopa’s Netsanet Gudeta on Saturday broke Kenya’s dominance in the World Half Marathon Championships by smashing the women’s only race world record in Valencia, Spain. Kenyan women had swept the medals at the previous two championships, but Gudeta pushed on alone from 15km to win in a time of 1 hour, 6 minutes and 11 seconds. The 27-year-old finished a comfortable 43 seconds ahead of Kenyan Joyciline Jepkosgei, who holds the overall world record of 1 hour, 4 minutes and 51 seconds. The previous record for a single-sex race was set by Lornah Kiplagat in Udine, Italy, in 2007. Earlier, Geoffrey Kamworor won his third successive title in the men’s event in 1 hour and 2 seconds. The Kenyan, who won silver in the 10,000m at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, was followed over the line by Abraham Cheroben of Bahrain and Aron Kifle of Eritrea.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
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