Ski ace Mikaela Shiffrin and tennis star Andrey Rublev have tested positive for COVID-19 just weeks before the Winter Olympics and Australian Open respectively, as global sport once again feels the chill wind of the coronavirus.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Shiffrin is to miss this week’s FIS Alpine Ski World Cup races in Lienz, but with a lead in the overall standings of more than 100 points she can probably afford to.
Rublev is more inconvenienced with the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open, starting in Melbourne on Jan. 17.
Photo: AFP
“I have to recover, and I will go to Melbourne only when I am certain it is safe for everyone,” Rublev wrote on Twitter on Monday.
The world No. 5, as well as former world No. 1 Rafael Nadal, Wimbledon semi-finalist Denis Shapovalov and US Open champion Emma Raducanu, might regret having accepted the money to play in the exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.
The quartet, along with Wimbledon women’s quarter-finalist Ons Jabeur and Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, all tested positive. Raducanu did not even play as she tested positive before the tournament, as did Nadal’s coach Carlos Moya.
The debate still rages on about whether the English Premier League was correct to insist the show must go on over Christmas.
Three Boxing Day matches were called off and two due to be played yesterday have been postponed.
The situation has raised Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel’s hackles — not least because his club’s appeal to call off the game on Dec. 19 against Wolverhampton Wanderers was rejected.
“It’s not fair,” said Tuchel after his side beat Aston Villa 3-1 on Sunday. “We’ve all been in bed for 10 days and we play against teams who prepare with games postponed, and who prepare with one week for these matches... They make us play all the time, even if we have COVID.”
“We have new injuries and it won’t stop. People at the green table, in offices, make these decisions,” he added.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Nick Castellanos, Trea Turner and Kody Clemens homered on Wednesday as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 9-6 and clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs. Castellanos had three hits and scored three times. Bryson Stott also had three hits and Brandon Marsh drove in three runs for the Phillies, who on Monday claimed their first National League East title in 13 years. Coupled with the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia secured the bye and home-field advantage in the NL Division Series. The Phillies owned the tiebreaker with the Brewers after winning the season series against the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946
Olympic bronze medalist Lee Meng-yuan has become the first Taiwanese athlete to top the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) men’s skeet world rankings, while top Taiwanese shooters won golds in each of yesterday’s finals in Taoyuan. Lee’s 6,610 points put him ahead of fellow men’s skeet medalists from the Paris Olympics Americans Vincent Hancock and Conner Prince. Lee on Monday said that he was surprised by the result, although he had expected his ranking to rise after the Games, which was also the first time a Taiwanese athlete had competed in men’s skeet. Despite topping the rankings, Lee said he believed Hancock, who