Category Archives: Sport

Tokyo Olympics: poll shows 60% of Japanese people want Games cancelled

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  • Limited public support amid surge in Covid-19 cases in Tokyo
  • Time for discussion about staging Games is now, says Naomi Osaka

Preparations for Tokyo Olympics have suffered another setback after a poll found that nearly 60% of people in Japan want them to be cancelled, less than three months before the Games are due to open.

Japan has extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and several other regions until the end of May as it struggles to contain a surge in Covid-19 cases fuelled by new, more contagious variants, with medical staff warning that health services in some areas are on the verge of collapse.

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Not cricket? Scientists suggest bamboo bats are a match for willow

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Researchers create bat with similar performance from what they say is cheap and sustainable material

Cricket has been bowled a googly by scientists who have suggested the traditional willow used to make bats could be replaced by bamboo to increase their sustainability and boost the sport’s reach.

“Willow has been the principal material for cricket bats for centuries,” said Dr Darshil Shah at the University of Cambridge, who co-authored the study.

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Manchester United lose £200m training kit deal over fans’ anti-Glazers campaign

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  • The Hut Group pulls out of contract starting in July, sources say
  • Fans are campaigning for boycott of club’s commercial partners

Manchester United have missed out on a proposed new training kit deal worth £200m over 10 years after the Manchester-based company The Hut Group had concerns about the supporters’ campaign to boycott the club’s commercial partners in protest at the Glazers’ ownership, the Observer understands.

Richard Arnold, United’s group managing director, was told on Friday that THG had pulled out of a contract which was due to start on 1 July.

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Champions League: FA in talks over relocating final as Turkey joins red list

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  • Manchester City and Chelsea fans affected by move
  • FA in talks with Uefa over bringing final to England

The Football Association is in talks with Uefa over relocating the Champions League final to England after Turkey was placed on the UK government’s travel red list.

Uefa had been expected to confirm details on Friday for the final on 29 May, with Manchester City and Chelsea fans expected to be allocated at least 4,000 tickets each for the match in Istanbul.

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Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez: ‘This is the reality of my life. No boxing, no life’

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The Mexican fighter talks exclusively about his upcoming bout with Billy Joe Saunders, childhood bullies and the pitfalls of fame

“I love this,” Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez says as he looks around the scattered debris of his gym in San Diego. His intense gaze scans the heavy bags and speed balls, the hand wraps and water bottles, the gloves and head guards, with an empty ring at its very heart. It’s just after 10 in the morning and the familiar clatter and din of his training camp has already begun for the day. Álvarez, the best boxer in the world, turns back to my Zoom screen and then, leaning forward, he speaks in Spanish with surprising ardour for a 30-year-old fighter who has been boxing professionally for more than half his life: “I love it. I’m always motivated because I love boxing.”

It’s strangely moving as we reach the core of a rare one-to-one interview with Álvarez and he switches back to English to say two simple yet compelling sentences. “This is the reality of my life. No boxing, no life.”

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Sadiq Khan pledges to explore new London Olympic bid if re-elected

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Mayor will say city could look at bidding for 2036 or 2040 Games as post-Covid morale boost for nation

Sadiq Khan is pledging to look at bringing the Olympics back to London within 20 years if he is re-elected as mayor on Thursday.

In a speech at an amateur boxing club in Earlsfield, south-west London, on Tuesday, Khan will set out the prospect of another London Olympics as a post-Covid morale boost that he argues would extend beyond the capital.

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Maradona care ‘deficient and reckless’ before death, medical board report finds

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  • Footballing icon died of heart failure in Argentina in November
  • The 60-year-old was ‘not properly monitored’, says report

A medical board appointed to investigate the death of Diego Maradona has concluded that the football icon’s medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner,” according to a copy of the report shared with Reuters on Friday.

Maradona’s death in November last year rocked Argentina, where he was revered, and prompted a period of mourning and finger-pointing about who was to blame after his long battle with addiction and ill health.

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Ian Nepomniachtchi will not be able to play next to Russia flag against Carlsen

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As Magnus Carlsen prepares for a two-day final with his old rival Hikaru Nakamura, Wada’s ban on Russia has reached chess

Ian Nepomniachtchi’s feat in qualifying as Magnus Carlsen’s official challenger in a €2m, 14-game world title series at Dubai in November was subsequently hit on two fronts. First, having won the Candidates with a round to spare, Nepomniachtchi lost Tuesday’s dead rubber in Ekaterinburg. A more significant blow came on Friday, however, when he learned that he is not allowed to play with the Russian flag beside him in Dubai, owing to his country’s ban imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Following Tuesday’s defeat by China’s Ding Liren, the 30-year-old Muscovite said that he had lacked motivation for the game, a strange comment when a win would have raised his Fide world rating close to 2800, the super-elite level, while as it was Ding’s victory regained the No 3 spot in the ratings that he had briefly let slip a few days earlier.

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Garry Kasparov: ‘Why become a martyr? I can do much more outside Russia’

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The chess grandmaster on speaking out against Vladimir Putin and why he cannot choose the best player ever

“I haven’t stopped my fight against the regime,” says Garry Kasparov, his words bristling with defiance and quiet rage. “I’m not lowering my voice. Putin is not just a Russian imperialist. He has a much bigger agenda. He is an existential threat to the free world.”

It would have been easy for the greatest chess player in history to stay quiet after fleeing Russia in 2013 amid a crackdown on prominent opposition figures. Kasparov, after all, is a successful businessman, an expert on artificial intelligence and cyber security, and has just launched a new website, Kasparovchess.com. But that has never been his style. Not now. Not ever.

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Liverpool to open discussions with fans after European Super League backlash

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  • Liverpool’s CEO Billy Hogan wants to find ‘workable solutions’
  • Spirit of Shankly fans’ group vote for board representation

Liverpool have agreed to open discussions with fans following the toxic backlash from their involvement in the controversial European Super League.

Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owner, was among the main drivers of the project which collapsed within 48 hours of plans being launched after outcry from all corners of the game with fans protesting outside Premier League matches to voice their opposition.

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Partner in Saudi bid to buy Newcastle United is major Tory donor

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Jamie Reuben’s involvement in bid supported by Boris Johnson raises more cronyism questions

An investor in the planned takeover of Newcastle United that received high-level support from Boris Johnson last year is a major Conservative party donor who has personally funded the prime minister’s constituency office and leadership campaign.

Jamie Reuben, 34, his father, David, and uncle Simon, who own the Reuben Brothers property development empire, were co-investors with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), and the financier Amanda Staveley, in the £300m bid to buy the Premier League club from Mike Ashley.

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IPL players told ‘you are playing for humanity’ in midst of Covid pandemic

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  • Chief executive sends email stating ‘you are safe in bubble’
  • Eleven England players still remain in Covid-crisis country

Cricketers at the ongoing Indian Premier League have been told they are playing for “humanity” and remain “totally safe” within the confines of the tournament’s bio-secure bubble as organisers look to stave off further departures.

The IPL’s continuation during India’s huge second wave of Covid-19 cases – one that has seen daily recorded cases top 350,000 in the past week – is coming under scrutiny after Ravichandran Ashwin and three Australians, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson and Andrew Tye, opted to leave their franchises.

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Spotify’s Daniel Ek joins forces with Arsenal legends in bid to buy club

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  • Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira assisting potential purchase
  • Kroenkes understood to want at least £2bn for the club

The Spotify owner Daniel Ek is preparing a bid to buy Arsenal with assistance from the club’s former players Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira.

The Guardian understands Ek began making inquiries about a potential purchase over the weekend and that an announcement about an official approach could be made as soon as next week. Ek has asked the club legends Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira for help in assembling a package that could persuade the Kroenke family, who are under mounting pressure after Arsenal’s attempt to join the doomed Super League last week, to sell up.

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Ravindra Jadeja blasts astonishing 37 off one over in IPL

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  • Chennai player hits 28-ball 62 in Super Kings’ win over RCB
  • Final over scorecard reads: 6,6,6 (off no-ball) 6,2,6,4

Ravindra Jadeja smashed a record-equalling 37 runs off the final over before claiming 3-13 to lead Chennai Super Kings to a 69-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League match in Mumbai.

Chris Gayle, while playing for Bangalore, had also hit 37 runs in a single over against Kochi Tuskers’ Prasanth Parameswaran during the 2011 edition of the IPL – but Jadeja’s Sunday best was one of the most astonishing all-round tours de force the competition has seen.

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Footballers and clubs to boycott social media in mass protest over racist abuse

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Professionals and teams from top English leagues will log off Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for the whole of next weekend

The world of English professional football will unite for an unprecedented four-day boycott of social media next weekend to protest at the continued abuse and racism aimed at players.

Clubs in the English Premier League, English Football League, Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship will switch off their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts in response to “the ongoing and sustained discriminatory abuse” of footballers, and their despair over a lack of action from the tech companies.

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National Spelling Bee adds vocabulary and lightning-round tiebreaker for 2021

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The Scripps National Spelling Bee is undergoing a major overhaul to ensure it can identify a single champion, adding vocabulary questions and a lightning-round tiebreaker to this year’s pandemic-altered competition.

The 96-year-old bee has in the past included vocabulary on written tests but never in the high-stakes oral competition rounds, where one mistake eliminates a speller. The only previous tiebreaker to determine a single champion was a short-lived extra written test that never turned out to be needed.

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Football fans have shown how to take on corporate power and win | Owen Jones

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If popular outrage can have such a dramatic effect in football, then why not in even more consequential areas of life?

If the age of There Is No Alternative has an ethos, it is this. Elected governments no longer have any levers to pull: their powers have been usurped by multinational corporations with no respect for borders, and politicians can merely surf passively on the choppy waters of the markets. Collective action from within civil society to secure lasting reforms has been permanently neutered, because governments lack the power to concede, and the fragmentation of society has reduced us all to isolated individuals looking after our own.

Related: The European Super League is the perfect metaphor for global capitalism | Larry Elliott

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Caster Semenya: ‘They’re killing sport. People want extraordinary performances’

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South African Olympic champion on her ECHR appeal, her 5,000m ambitions and campaigning for athletes like her in the future

Caster Semenya should be angry, but she isn’t. As the clock ticks down towards the Tokyo Olympics, the South African should, like her rivals, be training for the push to land a third consecutive gold medal.

Instead, the 30-year-old, who has fought a wave of prejudice and stigma throughout her life, is forlornly waiting on news from the European court of human rights (ECHR), which, in turn, could convince World Athletics that being asked to take medication is perhaps not the most humane way of dealing with a woman who has a congenital condition some believe hands her an unfair advantage.

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Agnelli admits Super League cannot go ahead after nine clubs pull out

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  • Premier League six, Milan duo and Atlético bow to pressure
  • ESL had put out statement insisting proposal was sound

The European Super League founder and Juventus chairman, Andrea Agnelli, has said that the breakaway can no longer go ahead after nine clubs withdrew.

Asked whether the project could still happen after the exits, Agnelli told Reuters: “To be frank and honest no, evidently that is not the case.”

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