■ATHLETICS
Wayne Collett dies aged 60
Wayne Collett of the US, who won the 400m silver medal at the 1972 Olympics and was later banned from the Olympics for life, died on Wednesday US media reported. Collett, 60, died at the St Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles from cancer, said Mark Dellims, the sports information director for UCLA, where Collett had been a track and field star. At the 1972 Munich Games, Collett was beaten to the 400m gold medal by compatriot Vince Matthews, but it was their subsequent antics on the podium that arguably dominated the headlines. As the national anthem played both athletes fidgeted and talked, sparking fears of another “Black Power” protest four years after Tommie Smith and John Carlos caused controversy in Mexico. Collett later explained he had felt uneasy honoring the anthem because of the struggle faced by African Americans at the time. “I couldn’t stand there and sing the words because I don’t believe they’re true,” he said. “I wish they were. I believe we have the potential to have a beautiful country, but I don’t think we do.” Both Collett and Matthews were immediately banned from future Olympic competition by the International Olympic Committee.
■HORSE RACING
Brennan rides Cup winner
Paddy Brennan rode Imperial Commander to glory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday after pre-race favorite Kauto Star fell four fences out. Imperial Commander, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies, was too strong for 2008 Gold Cup winner Denman, pulling clear on the run to the last before powering to win by seven lengths. “It’s by far the best day of my life,” a delighted Brennan said. “I’m speechless. It was a dream the whole way.”
■SPEEDSKATING
South Koreans dominate
South Korea dominated the first day of the short track speedskating world championships. Kwak Yoon-gy clocked 2 minutes, 24.316 seconds to win the men’s 1,500m title on Friday, leaving the silver and bronze medals to teammates Sung Si-bak and Lee Ho-suk. Park Seung-hi of South Korea took the women’s 1,500m title in a time of 2 minutes, 21.570, beating teammates Lee Eun-byul and Cho Ha-ri.
■SLED DOG RACING
Jamaican finishes 47th
The first musher from Jamaica to enter the 1,770km Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has reached the finish line at Nome, three days after Lance Mackey won for an unprecedented fourth consecutive time. Newton Marshall finished in 47th place. The 27-year-old rookie covered the arduous course in 12 days, 4 hours and 27 minutes, reaching Nome at 7:27pm on Friday. As of late Friday night, 48 mushers had completed the race and 15 others have scratched. Eight remain on the trail. The last musher to reach Nome receives the Red Lantern Award. Marshall, a resident of St Anne Parish, said before the start that he was determined to make it to Nome and excited to see the “lovely” landscape along the way.
■SKYDIVING
Florida jump goes wrong
A man died while skydiving in Florida after he had problems with his parachute, authorities said. Zephyrhills police said 68-year-old Paul Luter III appears to have died instantly upon impact on Friday afternoon. Skydive City general manager David Hayes said it appears Luter’s main shoot didn’t open properly. By the time Luter cut away from his main parachute at about 90m, there was not enough altitude for the reserve parachute to deploy.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
Things are somewhat out of control at the Australian Open this year, and that has only a little to do with the results on the courts. Yes, there were some upsets, including Madison Keys eliminating No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the women’s singles semi-finals on Thursday. It also was the first time since 1990 that three teenagers beat top-10 men’s seeds at a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The loser of one of those matches, Daniil Medvedev, got fined US$76,000 for behaving badly. Last year’s women’s singles runner-up exited in the first round. However, the real fuss is happening elsewhere. The rowdy fans, for one
The CTBC Brothers from Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) on Friday announced they reached an agreement with the team’s shortstop Chiang Kun-yu (江坤宇) to extend his contract by 10 years in a deal that could worth up to NT $147.88 million (US$4.5 million). Including a NT$10 million incentive bonus, the 24-year- old’s new contract stipulates that his monthly salary will be NT$660,000 starting this year, increasing to NT$1.2 million from the fifth year of the deal. Chiang’s new agreement also comes with a caveat in the form of a “player option” where he would have the choice to become a free
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