Category: SPORTS

South American World Cup qualifiers resume on Thursday after a seven-month interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, though that doesn’t mean the virus has waned in the region. Top-of-the-table Brazil and second-place Argentina could take decisive steps in the next two rounds to assure somewhat calm pathways to Qatar, while Peru, which made it to Russia three years ago but now has one point after four matches, is already fighting to survive. The latest rounds of South American World Cup qualifiers were in November. More games scheduled to be played…

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Indian boxer Sakshi Choudhary (54kg) has lost her final spot in the Asian Championships after her rival, top-seeded Kazakh Dina Zholaman, successfully challenged the narrow victory that the two-time youth world champion had clinched in the last-four stage. Sakshi had prevailed 3-2 in the regulation bout but the decision was challenged by the Kazakh team and eventually overturned. “Kazakhstan’s Dina Zholaman defeated India’s Sakshi Choudhary at the women’s bantamweight (54kg),” the Asian Boxing Confederation announced. Zholaman was the declared winner in the official result sheet that came out at the…

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 US health officials and the State Department has warned Americans against travel to Japan because of a surge in coronavirus cases in the country, which is preparing to host the Olympics in just two months. The twin alerts don’t ban US citizens from visiting the country, but they could have an impact on insurance rates for travellers may factor into decisions by Olympic athletes and spectators on whether to compete in or attend the games, which are due to start in July. There was no immediate indication as to what…

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 Nothing really came to Diego Simeone’s mind after his Atl tico Madrid side finally clinched the Spanish league title. So he just started laughing. “My first reaction was to start laughing,” he said. “It came out naturally. I don’t know why, but I laughed, I just laughed.” Atl tico had just rallied to defeat Valladolid 2-1 and win its first league title in seven years on Saturday. It was the team’s 11th league title, and third since 1996, when Simeone still played for the club. “It was a happy feeling…

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 If John Coates was trying to stir controversy, he succeeded. An International Olympic Committee vice president, Coates was asked a few days ago by a Japanese reporter at an online news conference if the Tokyo Olympics would go ahead, even if a state of emergency were in force in Japan. Coates replied: Absolutely, yes. Coates said what the IOC and local organizers have been trying to persuade the Japanese public about for months: The postponed Olympics with 11,000 athletes from 200 nations and territories will open on July 23 and…

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Seven health professionals who tended to Diego Maradona in the days before his death have been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Maradona, who led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup, died of a heart attack November 25 at a rented residence outside Buenos Aires following brain surgery two weeks earlier. He was 60. A medical board’s report given to prosecutors this month concluded that Maradona was in agony for more than 12 hours, did not receive adequate treatment and could still be alive if he had been properly hospitalised.…

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The Indian women’s cricket team will compete in its maiden day-night Test when it tours Australia later this year, BCCI secretary Jay Shah said on Thursday. Shah made the announcement on his twitter handle, stating that the move was part of the BCCI’s commitment to promoting the women’s game. “Taking forward our commitment towards women’s cricket, I am extremely pleased to announce that Team India @BCCIwomen will play in their first-ever pink ball day-night Test later this year in Australia,” Shah tweeted. The Indian women’s team, which will play its…

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England’s swashbuckling batsman Jos Buttler says Indian greats Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly’s big hundreds in the 1999 World Cup match against Sri Lanka had an “incredible impact” on him. The duo of Ganguly and Dravid had stitched together a mammoth partnership of 318 runs for the second wicket to set up an easy victory for India. That was long before the T20 revolution took the game by storm but, on that day in Taunton, sixes and fours rained down from the blades of the two Indian batsmen, something the…

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Barcelona’s slow start two years ago doomed its European dream so this time it came out firing against Chelsea, scoring after just 32 seconds en route to a 4-0 victory and its first Women’s Champions League title. In a ruthless offensive display, Barcelona’s attackers sliced through Chelsea’s defense and did all of their scoring inside 36 minutes, beginning with an own-goal. Bar a is the first team from Spain to win Europe’s top club competition, which had been dominated recently by seven-time champions Lyon. In its only other appearance in…

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Maybe the new generation of tennis players isn’t quite so ready to end the eras of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Titles for Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev in the Monte Carlo Masters and Madrid Open, respectively, raised speculation again that the Big Three including 39-year-old Roger Federer was expiring. Well, again, not yet. Djokovic, who turns 34 in a week, and Nadal, who turns 35 next month, won a total of three matches over younger players on Saturday and will renew their record-setting rivalry in the Italian Open final…

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