BASKETBALL
Curry not hurt in crash
Two-time MVP Stephen Curry on Friday escaped serious injury after being involved in a multicar accident while en route to the Golden State Warriors’ practice facility. Curry was westbound on Highway 24 near Oakland at about 9am when his Porsche Panamera collided with two other vehicles, damaging both the front and back end of his vehicle, US media reported. An Oakland TV station reported a California Highway Patrol spokesman as saying a Lexus car spun out on the freeway and collided with the front of the Porsche before a second car rear-ended it. “Don’t need any reminders but All the Time God is Great and God is Great all the time! Appreciate all the texts,” Curry wrote on Twitter. Police said the wet weather was likely a factor and that no charges have been laid.
RUGBY UNION
Two dropped for hotel visit
Australia backs Kurtley Beale and Adam Ashley-Cooper were dropped for yesterday’s match against England at Twickenham after bringing women into their hotel room earlier on tour, coach Michael Cheika said on Friday. The incident took place following Australia’s 9-6 defeat by Wales on Nov. 10. Australian media reported that three women, one of whom was said to be Ashley-Cooper’s sister-in-law, were out of the hotel by 10:30pm GMT. Team rules state guests are not allowed in players’ rooms. The Wallabies were already reeling from knowing that David Pocock would miss the England game with a neck injury sustained against Italy.
RUGBY UNION
Rainbow laces ‘ill-fitting’
Several international teams planned to wear rainbow laces in support of former Wales captain Gareth Thomas this weekend, but England might avoid a similar gesture because they do not fit into their boots. Thomas on Sunday last week posted a video on Twitter saying he had been a victim of a homophobic assault in Cardiff. Wales and France have already said their players would be wearing rainbow laces this weekend, but England’s Sam Underhill, facing Australia yesterday, said: “I won’t be wearing them personally. That is more to do with — it sounds a bit ridiculous given the size of the issue they are representing — the thickness of the laces, they are actually really uncomfortable in my boots.” He added: “But it is an incredibly worthy cause, an incredibly important cause.”
ATHLETICS
Bett given four-year ban
Kenyan world 800m bronze medalist Kipyegon Bett has been handed a four-year ban for doping, the International Association of Athletics Federations Athletics Integrity Unit said in a statement on Friday. Bett, 20, refused to allow a urine sample to be taken in February and then in July, when a sample was taken, he tested positive for the prohibited substance erythropoeitin, an endurance-boosting hormone, the unit said. Unless he appeals, Bett is to be suspended until August 2022.
SOCCER
Alaves miss out on lead
Deportivo Alaves on Friday lost to relegation-threatened CD Leganes 1-0, missing an opportunity to take the Spanish league lead. Alaves could have passed Barcelona for the lead with a victory, but the hosts secured the three points with a goal by Youssef En-Nesyri shortly before halftime at Butarque Stadium. It was the first win in six matches for Leganes, allowing them to move out of the relegation zone ahead of the weekend matches.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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