SOCCER
Players booed for kneeling
Players from FC Dallas and Nashville SC on Wednesday night faced a smattering of boos when they collectively took a knee during the US national anthem before their Major League Soccer game in Frisco, Texas. Dallas defender Reggie Cannon said he was disgusted by the boos at Toyota Stadium when players and officials knelt to call attention to racial injustice. He said teammate Ryan Hollingshead turned to him afterward and said he was sorry. “You can’t even have support from your own fans in your own stadium. It’s baffling to me,” Cannon said. “As a team we try to give the best possible product on the field and these last six months have been absolute hell for us. Absolute hell.”
ATHLETICS
Russia pays US$6m fine
Russia on Wednesday paid US$6.3 million to World Athletics to escape expulsion from track and field’s world governing body. The Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) had a Saturday deadline to pay a US$5 million fine and US$1.3 million in costs to World Athletics. That followed the alleged use of forged medical documents to give an athlete an alibi for being unavailable for drug testing. RusAF was threatened with expulsion after it missed an initial July 1 deadline to pay. The Russian Sports Ministry put up the funds after RusAF said it could not pay. RusAF is still serving a suspension imposed in 2015 by World Athletics over widespread doping.
ATHLETICS
Swiss sports delayed again
Switzerland on Wednesday announced that with COVID-19 cases rising again, it was prolonging its ban on gatherings of more than 1,000 people until Oct. 1, triggering an upheaval for major sports. The decision to extend the ban by a further month caused the immediate cancelation of the world cycling championships, while the ice hockey and football championships, desperate for spectator income, were forced to rethink the start of the season. The Swiss government “intends to ensure that the epidemiological situation in Switzerland does not deteriorate,” it said in a statement.
SOCCER
Atalanta’s run ends
Just like that, Atalanta BC’s Champions League dream was over. Two late goals three minutes apart on Wednesday ended their remarkable run and crushed the hopes of their fans in Bergamo, the small Italian city hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The team’s chances of bringing home the European trophy ended with a 2-1 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the quarterfinals in Lisbon. “I can only thank my players. We were so close, really close,” Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini said. Atalanta took the lead at the Stadium of Light thanks to Mario Pasalic’s first-half goal, but Marquinhos equalized in the 90th and Eric Choupo-Moting scored the winner in the third minute of stoppage time. It was a heartbreaking finish to Atalanta’s first appearance in Europe’s top club competition, one that had grown bigger than sports after COVID-19 killed more than 6,000 in Bergamo. “At this moment, it’s quite painful,” Atalanta midfielder Marten de Roon said. “Tomorrow, I will be proud of our team and club, but at this moment I feel disappointment.”
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
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