CHINA SUPER LEAGUE
Tianjin saved at 11th hour
Debt-riddled Chinese Super League club Tianjin Tianhai were saved yesterday at the 11th hour after a new investor stepped in. A string of lower-league Chinese soccer teams have folded in the past few weeks, and Tianjin were set to become the biggest casualty of what the media have called a “bleak winter.” Tianjin — who were available for free, but are reportedly saddled with vast debt — said in a statement that Beijing-based property developer Vantone Holdings had come to the rescue.
CHINA SUPER LEAGUE
Wuhan side to return home
Wuhan Zall, the soccer team from the epicenter of the coronavirus, are to leave their training camp in the south of Spain to return to China, with their coach saying that they are more at risk in Europe than in their home city. “The problem right now is here, in China it has been practically eradicated,” Wuhan Zall coach Jose Gonzalez told Spain’s EFE news agency on Thursday. The team traveled to Cadiz in the region of Andalusia for a pre-season tour on Jan. 29 and remained there as the spread of the virus became more severe and the start of the Chinese Super League was postponed.
DAVIS CUP
Spain draw Russia, Ecuador
Defending champions Spain are to play Russia and Ecuador in the Davis Cup in November, after the draw was made in London on Thursday. Spain won the first edition of the reformed tournament in Madrid four months ago, when Rafael Nadal powered them to victory with a 2-0 win in the final against Canada. It is to be the second Davis Cup finals in Madrid after last year’s change of format, which spread the tournament of four three-day ties across 10 months. Twelve teams are to compete in the finals at the Caja Magica from Nov. 23 to 29.
ALL ENGLAND OPEN
Lin Dan advances in thriller
Six-time badminton champion Lin Dan on Thursday staved off two match points as he won his first-round match at the All England Open. In what could be the 36-year-old Chinese star’s last All England, the double Olympic gold medalist and five-time world champion defeated Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn, a player half his age, 13-21, 22-20, 21-10 in just over one hour in Birmingham. Lin next faces a familiar foe in Chen Long, the reigning Olympic champion and himself a two-time All England winner, who beat India’s Kidambi Srikanth 21-15, 21-16 in the first round.
ATHLETICS
Javelin champion dies at 97
Dana Zatopkova, the 1952 Olympic javelin champion and wife of four-time Olympic champion Emil Zatopek, died yesterday at the age of 97, the Czech Olympic Committee said. “Czech sport has lost one of its greatest personalities,” the committee said in a statement. Besides the gold from the Helsinki Olympics, Zatopkova won the Olympic silver in Rome in 1960. In 1958, she set the world record of 55.73m at the age of 35. She became the European champion in 1954 and 1958. Zatopkova, who was born on Sept. 19, 1922, shared the same birthday with her husband, Emil Zatopek, the 1948 Olympic running champion over 10,000m, who went on to win the 5000m and 10000m races and the marathon at the Helsinki games in 1952. Emil Zatopek died in 2000.
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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