Former MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden has died five days after the American was hit by a car while cycling in eastern Italy, his Honda World Superbike team said in a statement on Monday.
“It is with great sadness that Red Bull Honda ... has to announce that Nicky Hayden has succumbed to injuries suffered during an incident while riding his bicycle last Wednesday,” the team said. “Nicky passed away at 19:09 this evening at Maurizio Bufalini hospital in Cesena. His fiancee Jackie, mother Rose and brother Tommy were at his side.”
The 35-year-old had been in intensive care with severe brain damage since he was struck by a car while training on his bicycle along Italy’s Adriatic Coast.
Photo: AP
The force of the impact shattered the car windscreen.
The last medical bulletin from the hospital on Saturday said Hayden remained in a critical condition. The hospital had previously said he had suffered serious brain damage in the accident.
Hayden last raced in the MotoGP championship in Spain in September last year as a stand-in for injured Australian Jack Miller for the Marc VDS Honda team. He started 216 races between 2003 and 2015, winning three.
“Although this is obviously a sad time, we would like everyone to remember Nicky at his happiest — riding a motorcycle,” his brother, Tommy, said in the team statement. “He dreamed as a kid of being a pro rider and not only achieved that, but also managed to reach the pinnacle of his chosen sport in becoming world champion. We are all so proud of that.”
Italian newspapers reported on Monday that investigators had found video of the accident from a camera on a house overlooking the road.
They said the images suggested Hayden had failed to stop at an intersection and was hit by a passing car.
There was no immediate confirmation of the report from investigators.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For