OLYMPICS
Flame departs Greece
The Olympic flame yesterday began its journey to France on board the Belem leaving the Greek port of Piraeus. “The feelings are so exceptional. It’s such an emotion for me,” Tony Estanguet, Paris Olympics chief organizer, told reporters before the departure of the ship. The 19th-century three-masted barque is set to reach Marseille — where a Greek colony was founded in about 600 BC — on May 8.
Photo: AP
OLYMPICS
Thomas Bach backs equity
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach distanced himself from a taboo-busting move from World Athletics’ governing body to offer prize money to gold medalists at this year’s Paris Olympics. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe’s announcement earlier this month that track and field winners at the Paris Games are to receive US$50,000 has sparked mixed reactions. No other sports federation pays prize money at the Olympics. During an interview, Bach said that he thought international sports federations should be focused on reducing inequalities between countries. “The international federations have to treat all their member federations and their athletes on an equal basis and to try to balance this gap between the privileged and the less or under-privileged,” he said.
SOCCER
Leicester City to move up
Leicester City on Friday booked a place in the Premier League after rivals Leeds United crashed to a shock 4-0 defeat against Queens Park Rangers. The result left Leicester City at top of the Championship with 94 points with two games to play, while Leeds remained second on 90, but with just one match left. Third-place Ipswich Town can pip Leeds for the second automatic promotion place as they have 89 points with three matches still to play. They were to play Hull City after press time last night. “It’s not in our hands anymore (automatic promotion), we need to be honest,” Leeds United manager Daniel Farke told the BBC. “The race is not over, if Ipswich win the next two games, then I will say congratulations, but if they don’t win them, then we will have a lot to play for” against Southampton on the final day of the season. “As long as we have a chance, I’m far away from giving up,” he said. “Congratulations to QPR and congratulations to Leicester,” Farke added. “In the first 20 minutes we didn’t do the basics and QPR used this in an effective way to be 2-0 up.” Enzo Maresca’s Foxes achieved promotion at the first time of asking having been relegated from the Premier League last season. Their final two games begin with a trip to Preston North End on Monday, before they round off the season with a home finale against Blackburn Rovers on May 4.
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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