ATHLETICS
India police arrest wrestlers
Indian police yesterday detained several wrestlers including Olympic medalists as well as dozens of their supporters as they attempted to march to parliament in New Delhi, an Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene said. A group of wrestlers have held a sit-in since last month demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Singh over allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation. Yesterday, the wrestlers attempted to march to the new parliament just as it was being inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but they were halted by hundreds of police. Among those detained and hauled away into buses were Olympic bronze medalists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia. “We respect our athletes, but we will not let there be any disturbance in the inauguration,” broadcaster NDTV quoted a senior police official as saying.
ICE HOCKEY
Germany beats US in OT
Germany on Saturday scored a late equalizer and then upset the US in overtime to set up a final against Canada at the Ice Hockey World Championships. Frederik Tiffels scored with 2 minutes, 28 seconds left in overtime to give Germany a 4-3 win over the US in the semi-finals. Earlier, teenage forward Adam Fantilli scored the go-ahead goal as Canada edged Latvia 4-2 in the other semi-final. Germany reached the final for the first time since 1992, when the playoff format was introduced at the world championships.
HORSE RACING
Two more horses euthanized
Two horses have died in the past two days following injuries at Churchill Downs, the 11th and 12th fatalities over the past month at the home of the Kentucky Derby. Mare Kimberley Dream was euthanized after sustaining a distal sesamodean ligament rupture to her front leg during Saturday’s first race. Lost in Limbo was euthanized following a similar injury just before the finish line in Friday’s seventh race. The track said in a statement that both injuries were “inoperable and unrecoverable.” “We do not accept this as suitable or tolerable and share the frustrations of the public, and in some cases, the questions to which we do not yet have answers,” the statement added. “We have been rigorously working since the opening of the meet to understand what has led to this spike and have yet to find a conclusive discernable pattern as we await the findings of ongoing investigations into those injuries and fatalities.”
SOCCER
Chelsea win fourth title
Chelsea manager Emma Hayes on Saturday said the drinks were on her after a 3-0 win at Reading secured their fourth consecutive Women’s Super League title. Sam Kerr scored twice, while Guro Reiten was also on target, to secure the victory the Blues needed to hold off Manchester United’s fight to win the English top flight for the first time. Victory completed a league and FA Cup double for Chelsea after they beat United 1-0 at Wembley earlier this month. And they came close to a treble after missing out narrowly to Barcelona in the UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-finals. “Drinks are on me. I’ll be ordering the shots,” Hayes said. “I hope they have a fantastic time — they’ve earned it.”
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