TRACK AND FIELD
Rojas to miss Olympics
Reigning Olympic women’s triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas on Friday said she had injured her Achilles tendon and would miss the Paris Games. The 28-year-old Venezuelan said she had torn her Achilles during a training jump in Spain and had undergone surgery in Madrid on Thursday. “My heart is broken and I want to say sorry that I will not be able to take part in Paris 2024,” she said in a statement on social media. Rojas won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the Olympic title at the COVID-19-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021. The world record holder dramatically won the fourth of her outdoor world titles in Budapest last year with her last-round leap, moving from eighth place to gold medal position with a winning jump of 15.08m.
TENNIS
Djokovic sets another record
Novak Djokovic on Friday reached a record 77th Masters semi-final when he defeated Australia’s Alex de Minaur in straight sets in Monte Carlo. Djokovic, the 36-year-old world No. 1 came through a rollercoaster quarter-final to win 7-5, 6-4 and make the last-four in the principality for the first time since 2015 when he went on to claim his second title at the tournament. Djokovic, the oldest man to make the Monte Carlo semi-finals in the Open Era, would take on Casper Ruud of Norway for a place in today’s championship match. “It was tough for both of us. He is one of the quickest players on Tour. He gets a lot of balls back that normally 99 percent of other players don’t,” said Djokovic, who avenged his loss to De Minaur at the United Cup in January.
CLIMBING
Teen breaks speed record
Teenager Sam Watson on Friday broke the speed climbing world record twice in under an hour at a World Cup competition in China, signaling his status as one of the favorites for gold at the Paris Olympic Games. Watson, 18, from the US broke the previous world record of 4.9 seconds by Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo when he scaled the 15m wall in 4.85 seconds in his first run. He followed that up with 4.79 seconds in his second attempt to lower his own best mark further. Watson is ranked No. 8 in the world and is to make his debut at the Paris Olympics, having already qualified in October last year.
ICE HOCKEY
Coyotes to relocate
Arizona Coyotes players have been informed that the NHL club is expected to relocate to Salt Lake City, a person with knowledge of the meeting said on Friday night. General manager Bill Armstrong flew to Edmonton, Alberta, to tell players about the team’s potential move to Utah before their game against the Oilers, the person said on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced. Players and officials could visit Salt Lake City next week, possibly as soon as after the season finale on Wednesday, which could be the final game at the 5,000-seat Mullett Arena in Tempe. “This team has been through a lot of adversity,” Coach Andre Tourigny said. “The first time the rumor came around, we didn’t manage it well and we shot ourselves in the foot, went on a 14-game losing streak.”
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures