Sports

TOKYO: A police officer helping with Japan's Olympic Torch relay has become the first participant in the event to be diagnosed with COVID-19, organisers said on Thursday (Apr 22). A man in his 30s tested positive for the virus after working on the relay in Kagawa prefecture on Japan's southern island of Shikoku, Tokyo 2020 said in a statement. The officer was guiding traffic in the town of Naoshima on Saturday and came down with a fever on Sunday, the Asahi Newspaper reported,

MANCHESTER, England: The European Super League collapsed on Wednesday (Apr 21) as eight of the 12 founding members from England, Italy and Spain abandoned the breakaway project under massive pressure from fans, politicians, soccer officials and even the British royals. Founder and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli told Reuters he was reluctantly calling time on the new league after six English clubs withdrew on Tuesday, with Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid following suit and AC Milan indicating they would too. "The voices and the

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Eoin Morgan has been fined Rs 12 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during his side's IPL 2021 match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) which KKR lost by 18 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. As this was KKR's first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences Morgan got away with a Rs 12 lakh fine. "Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan has been fined after his team maintained

Sunrisers Hyderabad finally got off the mark in the 2021 Indian Premier League, at the fourth time of asking, as they earned an emphatic nine-wicket win over Punjab Kings to leapfrog their opponents at the foot of the table. Having bowled out Kings for 120 on a helpful, slow Chennai surface, Sunrisers then chased down their target with just over an over to spare, Jonny Bairstow contributing an unbeaten 63 from 56 balls. Having lost all three of their opening games in the

Frenchwoman Stephanie Frappart will become the first female official to be involved in European Championship matches after UEFA confirmed the list of referees for this year's tournament. In the past two years, Frappart became the first female to referee a men's Champions League match, a French Ligue 1 game and a men's World Cup qualifier. Frappart was not named among the 18 referees to take charge of the 51 Euro 2020 games but she will be involved as a support match official, working

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis said he plans to return to the court Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks as long as he feels ready the day of the game. The Lakers listed Davis as questionable for the contest. Davis has missed two-plus months of the season with a calf injury that he described to reporters Wednesday as a "ripping" feeling when he aggravated it Feb. 14 against the Denver Nuggets. Earlier in the week, Lakers coach Frank Vogel hinted that Davis' return

STUTTGART, Germany: World number one Ashleigh Barty wasted no time on Wednesday (Apr 21) booking her place in the quarter-finals of the WTA clay-court tournament in Stuttgart. The top seed needed just 24 minutes to wrap up the first set against Germany's Laura Siegemund before claiming a 6-0, 7-5 second-round win. "It was good to play on a new surface, the court was quite quick compared to what I am used to," said Barty, who hit six aces in an impressive opening display.

MADRID: A first-half double from Karim Benzema helped Real Madrid cruise to a 3-0 victory away to Cadiz on Wednesday (Apr 21) that moved them top of La Liga. The Frenchman's brace came either side of a maiden senior league goal for defender Alvaro Odriozola, as Real moved onto 70 points, level with city rivals Atletico Madrid, who have a game in hand, but top due to their better head-to-head record. "We started the game really well, robbing the ball high, that was

PARIS: Striker Mauro Icardi scored a hat-trick as Paris St Germain eased into the French Cup semi-finals with an emphatic 5-0 victory over Angers and AS Monaco joined them with a 2-0 win over 10-man Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday (Apr 21). Icardi’s early strike for PSG was followed by an own goal from Angers defender Vincent Manceau and a simple headed third from Neymar in the second half, before the Argentine striker added two more. The defending champions, who have appeared in the

BIRMINGHAM, England: Manchester City recovered from conceding a very early goal to win 2-1 at Aston Villa on Wednesday (Apr 21) and move a step closer to the Premier League title after a game in which both sides finished with 10 men. City, who are 11 points ahead of Manchester United with five games left, were caught napping early when Villa took a quick free kick. A pass from Ollie Watkins found John McGinn and he rifled the ball home with 20 seconds

Judd Trump says even reigning world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan knows he is the number one player in the world. Trump's first-round win over Liam Highfield at the World Championship means he will remain top of the rankings at the start of next season. But had Trump lost, world number two and top seed O'Sullivan could have replaced him by retaining the title. "I have done enough over the past couple of seasons to be world number one," said Trump. "Even if I wasn't

Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer says the club "apologise unreservedly for the unrest" caused by the proposed European Super League. The rare public comment from the American came after Liverpool owner John W Henry apologised to supporters. United, Liverpool and four other Premier League sides withdrew from the ESL on Tuesday after a backlash. "We failed to show enough respect for its deep-rooted traditions," Glazer said in an open letter to fans. The 50-year-old admitted efforts "in seeking to create a more stable

Spanish top seed Rafael Nadal survived a scare before fighting back to beat Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka in the second round of the Barcelona Open. Nadal, who has not lost on clay to an opponent ranked outside the world's top 100 since 2004, won 3-6 6-2 6-4 against 111th-ranked Ivashka. British number one Dan Evans was unable to continue his excellent form on clay, losing to France's Corentin Moutet in a spiky second-round match. Evans, seeded 16th, lost 6-4 5-7 6-3. The pair

SINGAPORE: From this weekend, COVID-19 testing will not be required for up to 250 fans attending Singapore Premier League (SPL) matches, said the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) on Wednesday (Apr 21). This comes after conditional entry was implemented on Apr 10, the first-time fans could watch live matches since the final day of the 2020 season in December. Explaining the ticketing process in a media release, FAS said fans will need to buy a physical ticket from dedicated booths at match venues,

Liverpool owner John Henry apologised to supporters and to manager Jurgen Klopp on Wednesday (Apr 21) for the "disruption" caused by the club's involvement in the breakaway European Super League project. Liverpool were among the six Premier League clubs who signed up for the Super League but withdrew on Tuesday amid a storm of protests from fans, players, managers and governments, alongside threats of bans and sanctions from the game's European and world governing bodies UEFA and FIFA "I want to apologise to

Breakaway Super League clubs Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea could be banned from this season's Champions League semi-finals, UEFA executive committee member Jesper Moller said. The trio are part of the 12 clubs who announced on Sunday they were setting up a breakaway European Super League, a move which has drawn widespread criticism. Real Madrid are due to face Chelsea and Manchester City are drawn against Paris Saint-Germain - who have not agreed to join the breakaway league. Arsenal and Manchester United,

An Olympic artistic swimming qualifier scheduled for Tokyo in May will now be held outside Japan in June at a location to be decided, world body FINA said on Tuesday. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted preparations for the start of the 2020 Summer Games, already postponed by a year, in July. FINA said in a statement that the changes were due in part to "challenges related to the international calendar and the necessary adaptation of the venue to the Olympic Games’ operations in

Brooklyn Nets guard James Harden is out indefinitely after sustaining a setback during his rehabilitation from an injured right hamstring, the team announced Tuesday. "We're back to square one," Nets coach Steve Nash said. "He will be back when he's back. It might be the playoffs. It might be sooner." The 31-year-old was re-injured during an on-court session, according to the team. He underwent an MRI exam Tuesday to learn the severity of the injury. Harden is averaging 25.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and

Albert Ramos-Vinolas eked out in a win in the first round of his hometown event, beating Denmark's Holger Rune 6-7 (2), 6-1, 7-6 (2) at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Tuesday. Ramos-Vinolas needed more than three hours to get past his opponent, who is ranked 323rd in the world. Four of the five seeded players in action Tuesday earned second-round wins, with fifth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, seventh-seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada, eighth-seeded David Goffin of Belgium and 11th-seeded Jannik Sinner

The India Open Super 500 tournament, one of the last three qualifying events for the Tokyo Olympics, was on Monday postponed due to raging COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The USD 400,000 India Open was scheduled to be held behind closed doors in the national capital from May 11 to 16. "Considering the current challenges, BAI is left with no option but to announce the postponement of the tournament for the time being," Badminton Association of India (BAI) general secretary Ajay Singhania said