MOTORCYCLING
Jorge Martin crashes
MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin was taken to hospital yesterday after crashing on the opening day of pre-season testing in Malaysia. The 27-year-old, who made the move to Aprilia after winning last season’s championship for Pramac Ducati, reported pain in his left foot and right hand after being thrown off at turn two of Sepang track, his second crash of the session. Martin had completed 13 laps when he lost control of his new bike and was flipped high into the air. The Spaniard landed hard on his left foot before his head banged onto the asphalt, bringing out the red flag to halt the opening-day session. He had walked away unscathed from his first crash early in the session. Trackhouse team rider Raul Fernandez of Spain also crashed on an eventful first day of testing and was ruled out of the remaining two days with hand and foot fractures.
Photo: EPA-EFE
SOCCER
Premier League eyes tech
The Premier League could introduce semi-automated offside technology before the end of this season following “significant” progress in testing, chief football officer Tony Scholes said. Last year, Premier League clubs unanimously agreed to introduce the technology at a shareholders’ meeting. It was expected to be implemented before Christmas, but met with problems in testing. “The progress made over the last four to six weeks has been significant. So, we believe we’re going to be adopting the best system and the most accurate system,” Scholes told British media on Tuesday. “The EFL [English Football League] has introduced it into the League Cup this year. We will monitor it... Clearly, if we’re not confident until the last two or three match rounds, I think you then arrive at a pragmatic place where you just say, it wouldn’t make sense to introduce it now, but if we’re able to introduce it in advance of that, then it’s something that we’re actively considering.”
SOCCER
Milan sign Joao Felix
AC Milan have signed Portuguese forward Joao Felix from Chelsea on loan for the rest of the season, while Chelsea have brought in French midfielder Mathis Amougou from AS Saint-Etienne on an eight-year contract, the Premier League club said on Tuesday. British media reports said that Amougou, 19, joined Chelsea for a fee of about ￡12 million (US$14.98 million). “It’s an honor for me to sign for such a big club like Chelsea. They believe in young players and the process they have in place to develop us is fantastic,” Amougou said in a statement. Felix joined Chelsea from Atletico Madrid in August last year on a seven-year deal for a reported fee of ￡46 million, but the 25-year-old has struggled for game time in his second spell with the Premier League club.
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
Top seeded Jessica Pegula on Friday once again fought back from a set down to reach the WTA Charleston Open semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Defending champion Pegula has lost the first set in all three of her matches at the tournament so far, but again dug deep to maintain her hopes of retaining the title. The world No. 5 from the US took 2 hours, 10 minutes to defeat 19th-ranked Shnaider, relying on a formidable service game that included eight aces. Shnaider battled well in the first two sets and broke early for a 2-0 lead
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