SOCCER
Staff blamed for stampede
A stampede that led to the deaths of eight people outside an Africa Cup of Nations stadium on Monday was caused by a “reckless” decision to open a gate in the face of a “flood of people,” Cameroonian Minister of Sports and Physical Education Narcisse Mouelle Kombi said on Friday. “That entry gate was momentarily closed by security forces in the face of a surge of spectators despite other entry gates being in operation,” he told a news conference in Douala. The dead included a child, while 38 people were also injured. The minister also acknowledged that the number of security staff at the Olembe Stadium in Yaounde was “insufficient” at the 60,000-capacity stadium for the last-16 match between the host nation and the Comoros.
OLYMPICS
Athlete cases increase
Daily COVID-19 infections among athletes and team officials at the Beijing Winter Olympics rose to 19 on Friday from two a day earlier, as Games organizers warned of more cases in coming days. Including the athletes and officials, 36 Games-related personnel were found to be infected — 29 when they arrived at the Beijing airport and seven already in the “closed loop” bubble that separates event personnel from the public, the organizing committee said in a statement yesterday. “It’s annoying that every morning you need to get up a little earlier specially to get a PCR test. I think that in a few days, it will be like brushing your teeth,” Russian hockey player Anton Slepyshev told RIA news agency. “Everyone is concerned that the test result will suddenly turn out to be positive, but the reality is such that we are living with COVID. We accept all the risks and fears,” he said.
CYCLING
Bernal was nearly paraplegic
Egan Bernal had a 95 percent chance of becoming a paraplegic, the Ineos Grenadiers rider said on Friday, following a serious crash during training in Colombia earlier this week that required multiple surgeries. The former Tour de France winner slammed into a stationary bus on the outskirts of Bogota on Monday, sustaining injuries to his spine, legs and chest. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors performed neurosurgery. “Having had a 95 percent chance of becoming a paraplegic and nearly losing my life doing what I love to do most, today I want to thank God, the Sabana University Clinic and to all its specialists for doing the impossible, my family and all of you,” Bernal wrote on Twitter. In a statement, the hospital said that the 25-year-old Colombian was recovering well but would undergo two more minor surgeries to treat fractures on the right hand and in the mouth.
MOTOR RACING
De Vries wins opener
Formula E world champion Nyck de Vries on Friday started the new season in dominant fashion as he clinched victory in the opening race at the Diriyah E-Prix in Saudi Arabia, with teammate Stoffel Vandoorne making it a one-two for Mercedes. Dutchman De Vries trailed pole-sitter Vandoorne for the initial stages, but moved into the lead after the Belgian missed an attack mode activation loop following a safety-car restart. “This is what we have been working towards, so it is a very pleasing start to the weekend,” De Vries said after his second straight win in Diriyah.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier