OLYMPICS
WADA to trial new drug tests
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is to trial the use of dried blood spot testing at the Tokyo Olympics, an innovative new technique hailed as a potential “game-changer” in the fight against drug cheats, it said on Friday. Speaking following a virtual meeting of the global anti-doping watchdog’s board and executive committee, WADA president Witold Banka said that the new method would complement existing anti-doping techniques. Dried blood spot testing — in which small samples are collected from a finger prick and blotted onto an absorbent card — could mark a new era in anti-doping, eventually allowing for more athletes to be targeted and more tests to be carried out, Banka said. Although WADA said the new method would be trailed at this year’s delayed Games, testers hoped to have the technique in “routine” use by the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing in February next year. Dried blood spot testing (DBS) allowed for greater analysis of unstable compounds and made it easier to test athletes in remote areas around the world, where traditional blood samples were often difficult to transport, WADA said. “Given the logistical and cost advantages, DBS will allow testing authorities to target more athletes and collect more samples,” Banka said, describing it as a “great step forward” for anti-doping.
OLYMPICS
CEO voices doubts on Games
Softbank Group Corp founder and CEO Masayoshi Son yesterday expressed fresh doubt about Tokyo’s delayed Summer Olympics going ahead during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Currently more than 80% of people want the Olympics to be postponed or cancelled. Who and on what authority is it being forced through?” Son wrote in a Twitter post in Japanese. The billionaire last week said he was “afraid” of holding the Olympics during the pandemic. Polls consistently show most Japanese people oppose holding the Games as planned. The Reuters Corporate Survey on Friday showed that about 70 percent of big Japanese companies also want the Games delayed or canceled, but a top International Olympic Committee official on Friday said the Games would “absolutely” go ahead even if the capital were still under a state of emergency.
SWIMMING
Final raced twice after fault
The women’s 100m backstroke final at the European Swimming Championships was on Friday raced twice due to a timing malfunction with Britain’s Kathleen Dawson winning both versions. The competitors were forced to swim a second time after the technical glitch in lane eight before Dawson swam again to win gold. However, she missed out on what would have been a European record of 58.18 seconds she had swam in the first race. “I’m quite impressed with myself, I admit I was slightly disappointed when I found out I had to swim again tonight,” Dawson said. “But my coach told me I could do it again easily. So then I just focused again and got ready to go.” The Netherlands’ Kira Toussaint finished fourth after claiming a silver medal two hours earlier. Italy’s Margherita Panziera was second and Russia’s Maria Kameneva in third in the final race. “I feel like Kira [Toussaint] should have won this medal, but sometimes the luck changes and I took my chance,” Panziera said.
HOCKEY
Kadri suspended for hit
The NHL on Friday slapped Nazem Kadri with an eight-game ban, the fifth time the Colorado Avalanche forward has been suspended in his career. Kadri was suspended for an illegal check to the head of St Louis Blues player Justin Faulk that occurred in the third period of Wednesday night’s 6-3 playoff win by the Avalanche. The league’s Department of Player Safety ruled that Kadri delivered a “high, forceful check” to the head area of Faulk after the vulnerable Blues player took a shot on goal. Kadri was given a match penalty by the game officials, who ruled he aimed for the head area. The Blues called for an investigation into the incident after the game. “The guy can’t control himself,” Blues center Brayden Schenn said. “Bad hits. Greasy hits.” This marks the sixth suspension of Kadri’s career with three coming in the post-season. The league said they took into consideration that he is a repeat offender.
BOXING
Pacquiao to fight Spence
Philippine boxing icon Manny Pacquiao would fight unbeaten unified welterweight world champion Errol Spence in Las Vegas in August, Pacquiao said on Friday. The 42-year-old legend would be fighting for the first time since he beat Keith Thurman in July 2019 for the WBA welterweight title. He revealed his plans with a Twitter post of a promotional poster for the bout captioned: “Pacquiao v Spence, August 21, 2021, Las Vegas, Nevada.” Pacquiao, a senator in the Philippines, told the US sports Web site that the fight “might be” his last. If so, he appears to want to go out with a bang. Spence, the 31-year-old WBC and IBF champion, is 27-0 and coming off a dominant victory in December last year over Danny Garcia.
BASEBALL
Pitcher convicted of abuse
Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez faces a lengthy prison sentence after he was on Thursday convicted of multiple sex offence charges stemming from his interaction with a 13-year-old girl. A jury in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, deliberated for several hours after closing arguments and found Vazquez, 29, guilty on 10 counts of sexual abuse of children, two counts of unlawful contact with a minor, one count of statutory sexual assault, one count of corruption of a minor and one count of indecent assault of someone under 16 years old. Vazquez was arrested in September 2019 and police said he had admitted that he had “sex but not really” with the girl in 2017 — when she was 13 and he was 26 years old. The former MLB All-Star, who was one of the most highly rated relief pitchers, could spend decades behind bars. He was placed on administrative leave by MLB at the time of his arrest in 2019, halting his five-year career.
FOOTBALL
49ers to fully allow fans
The San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium would return to full capacity for this year’s NFL season, the team’s president Al Guido said on Friday. The team are scheduled to host the Kansas City Chiefs in their pre-season home opener on Aug. 14, while their first regular season home game would be against the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 26. The 49ers were one of 13 teams that played their home games last year without fans because of safety and health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Not a day goes by that we haven’t missed hearing 49ers fans in Levi’s Stadium and we’re thrilled to be able to fully welcome them back for the upcoming season,” Guido wrote on Twitter. The Levi’s Stadium has a capacity of 68,500.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB