■AUSSIE RULES
Adelaide beer ban ends
The time-honored tradition of drinking a beer in your seat while watching a sporting event is coming to Adelaide’s main Australian Rules football stadium, ending a 35-year-old ban. Local officials helped get the prohibition overturned by citing the global economic crisis. On Sunday, for the first time since its gates opened in 1974, AAMI Stadium (formerly Football Park) will join all other Australian Football League venues in allowing spectators at the Port Adelaide versus Essendon match to drink beer in their seats. Previously, spectators had to drink beer in designated bar areas inside the stadium.
■SOCCER
Kenyans lose their kit
Sales of Kenya replica kits are set for a boost after the national team’s kit went missing days ahead of a World Cup qualifier against Tunisia. Nairobi’s Standard newspaper reported yesterday that officials would have to go out and purchase replica jerseys from the shops after three sets of kit and 2,000 soccer balls went missing from the Kenyan soccer association’s stock. Football Kenya’s technical director Patrick Naggi told the newspaper there was no time to order a new set of kit from the team’s sponsors and there was no option but to buy from the shops. Kenya host Tunisia in Nairobi tomorrow as the final phase of the African qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup finals begins.
■CURLING
China make playoffs
Wang Bingyu edged Sweden’s Anette Norberg 8-7 yesterday to confirm China’s place in the playoffs at the women’s world championship. Wang, who leads the 12-team competition with a 9-1 win-loss record, scored three in the first end. Norberg — the two-time world and Olympic champion — made three straight ends to take a 4-3 lead. But Wang replied with a deuce in the fifth and a steal of two in the sixth for a 7-4 lead, which the Chinese never relinquished.
■SOCCER
Training session abandoned
South Africa’s national team turned up for a training session on Wednesday, only to find they had been lined up to act in a television commercial no one had told them about, the South African Press Association reported. The 2010 World Cup hosts, preparing for friendly international against Norway tomorrow, were scheduled six months ago to make an ad for their sponsors, but neither the coach nor his team had been told by officials. South Africa’s Brazil coach Joel Santana, now a 10-month veteran of the vagaries of soccer administration in Africa, had to be coaxed into agreeing to abandon his planned session and instead allow his players to be turned into temporary actors. “We will not use this situation as an excuse if we lose to Norway,” assistant coach Jairo Leal said.
■CYCLING
Valverde wins sprint finish
Alejandro Valverde of Spain won a sprint to take the third stage of the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon cycling race, while Levi Leipheimer retained the overall lead. Valverde covered the 157km mountain stage in 3 hours, 28 minutes, 16 seconds, to edge Spanish pair Ruben Plaza and Javier Moreno, who both finished with the same time. Leipheimer maintained a 16-second advantage over Astana teammate Alberto Contador with an overall time of 8 hours, 33 minutes, 26 seconds after both riders finished in the pack of riders who all received the same time as Valverde.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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