BASKETBALL
Russia ban remains
Russia is to remain banned from international competition with its men’s national team prohibited from participating in this year’s pre-Olympic qualification tournaments, the FIBA Executive Committee announced on Tuesday. The committee said it was following the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee in banning Russia and Belarus over the war in Ukraine.
ATHLETICS
Runner uses vehicle in race
A Scottish runner has been stripped of third place in an ultramarathon after data showed she had used a vehicle for part of the route, the race director said. Data from the tracking system at the GB Ultras Manchester to Liverpool 80km race on April 7 showed that Joasia Zakrzewski, who represented Scotland in the marathon at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, used a car for a 4km stretch of the race, the BBC reported. Race director Wayne Drinkwater said he had received information that a runner had gained an “unsporting, competitive advantage during a section of the event.” Zakrzewski has not commented publicly on the incident, but the BBC quoted a running friend of hers as saying she had felt sick and wanted to drop out. “She has cooperated fully with the race organizers’ investigations, giving them a full account of what happened,” Adrian Stott said. “She genuinely feels sorry for any upset caused.”
SOCCER
Maradona trial to continue
An Argentine appeals court on Tuesday confirmed that eight medical professionals accused of responsibility in the death of soccer legend Diego Maradona would stand trial. Neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and six others had appealed a decision issued last year to put them on trial for homicide with potential aggravating circumstances. Maradona died in November 2020 aged 60 while recovering from brain surgery for a blood clot, and after decades of battles with cocaine and alcohol addictions. Prosecutors accused the medical professionals of being involved in “reckless” and “deficient” home treatment of a patient.
TENNIS
Sabalenka speaks out
Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday said she cannot control what Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says about her and that while his comments might make her even more unpopular on the WTA she would “stop the war” in Ukraine if she could. The world No. 2 spoke last month about the “hate” she encountered in the locker room amid strained relations between some players following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was supported by Belarus. Lukashenko celebrated Sabalenka’s Australian Open victory in January and said more recently that people knew which country she hailed from even if she was playing under a neutral flag. “I’m pretty sure that it’s not helping,” Sabalenka told reporters in Stuttgart when asked about Lukashenko’s comments. “I don’t know what to say because he can comment [on] my game, he can comment whatever he wants to. I have nothing to do with politics ... If Ukrainians will hate me more after his speech, then what can I do? If they feel better by hating me, I’m happy to help them with that. They can do that.”
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
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
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
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
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