ATHLETICS
Judge shelves drugs case
An Italian judge on Thursday shelved a criminal investigation into former Olympic race walking champion Alex Schwazer, citing evidence that his urine samples were altered. Schwazer was banned for eight years in 2016 after a retest of a doping sample showed positive traces of steroids. The Italian was forced to miss the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. However, Walter Pelino, the preliminary investigation judge in Bolzano, dismissed legal proceedings. “The preliminary investigation judge believes that it has been established with a high level of credibility that the urine samples taken from Alex Schwazer on Jan. 1, 2016, were altered with the aim of making them positive, and therefore obtaining the suspension and the discrediting of the athlete,” Pelino wrote in an 87-page document detailing the dismissal of the case. Pelino also strongly criticized the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and World Athletics, then known as the IAAF. “They operated in a totally self-referential manner, not tolerating outside checks to the point that they were producing false statements,” Pelino said. “There is strong evidence of the fact that in trying to impede the scrutiny of the so-called crime, a series of crimes were committed.” WADA said in a statement that it had “grave concern” with Pelino’s comments and that it would not rule out further court action.
SOCCER
Mbappe threat alleged
Agitated and in the heat of competition during a Champions League match, Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe possibly threatened Barcelona defender Jordi Alba. The Marca daily and other media have posted a video online of Mbappe apparently saying: “In the street, I’ll kill you.” The incident between the two players occurred during PSG’s 4-1 win against Barcelona on Tuesday. Alba moved toward Mbappe after the PSG forward pushed Barcelona defender Sergino Dest in front of goal while play was stopped in the first half. The players then started trash-talking. It is not totally clear in the video what Mbappe is saying, although it appears that the native French-speaker tried to say: “In the street, I’ll kill you” in Spanish.
BADMINTON
Qualification date moved
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) yesterday said that Tokyo Olympics hopefuls would have until June 15 to secure qualification for the Games after a number of World Tour events were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Malaysia Open, which was initially scheduled for March 31 to April 4, has been pushed back to May 25 to 30, while April’s Malaysia Masters has been postponed until further notice. The Singapore Open has also been pushed back by two months and will now be held from June 1 to 6. “In securing new dates for the Malaysia Open and Singapore Open, BWF confirms the Indonesia Masters 2021 and Indonesia Open 2021 have been postponed also,” it said in a statement. Rankings at the end of April should have been the cut-off to decide which players would be at the Tokyo Games, due to begin on July 23. However, the BWF’s Race to Tokyo standings are now to close on June 15, with the Singapore Open serving as the last tournament for qualification.
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