RUGBY UNION
Man prosecuted for abuse
World Rugby hailed “a landmark outcome” after a man in Australia was prosecuted for sending threatening and abusive messages online to a match official and his wife during last year’s World Cup in France. The man, identified by Australian media as Aaron Isaia, a 22-year-old youth worker from Brisbane, on Monday pleaded guilty to an online harassment charge and was handed a A$1,000 (US$662) good behavior bond. He would also be banned from all World Rugby events. “World Rugby welcomes this landmark outcome,” chief executive Alan Gilpin said in a statement. “The vile and toxic abuse is an all-too-common occurrence for many sports men and women and public figures. We hope that this sends a very strong message to online trolls that such behavior is totally unacceptable and that the sport and the authorities are prepared to take action.”
TENNIS
Djokovic oldest ranked No. 1
Novak Djokovic has surpassed another tennis record once held by Roger Federer, becoming the oldest man to be ranked No. 1 in the ATP Tour’s computerized rankings. Djokovic, who turns 37 next month, is now older than Federer was on his last day atop the rankings in June 2018. Monday gives Djokovic 420 total weeks at that spot, extending another mark Federer (who was there for 310 weeks) had at one time before Djokovic broke it.
ATHLETICS
NAIA restricts trans women
The US National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) on Monday banned transgender women from competing in women’s sports, taking a more hardline stance than other athletic bodies that allow trans athletes to compete based on testosterone levels. The NAIA, representing mostly small colleges, is less influential than the larger National Collegiate Athletic Association, but its decision carries political weight in the wider US debate about transgender rights. “Only NAIA student-athletes whose biological sex is female may participate in NAIA-sponsored female sports,” the association said in its policy. Female athletes who have begun masculinizing hormone therapy may participate in internal workouts, practices and team activities, but are banned from external competition. Any eligible athlete may participate in men’s sports, it said. Meanwhile, World Netball banned transgender players from international competition with immediate effect under a new participation and inclusion policy issued on Monday. The global governing body of what has traditionally been, and remains at an international level, a women’s sport said it had undergone a lengthy consultation before issuing the policy.
OLYMPICS
Eiffel Tower to bear rings
The Olympic rings are to be displayed on the Eiffel Tower during the Paris Games, the company that manages the monument and the organizing committee of the Games said on Monday. The five rings representing the five continents and the universal nature of sport are to be installed in the next few weeks on the side of the tower that faces the river Seine, said Jean-Francois Martins, the head of the tower’s managing company Sete. Le Parisien said the rings would be situated between the first and second levels.
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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