Monday July 30, 2018
Gymnastics: Biles wins comeback after two-year break
Simone Biles of USA competes in the women’s vault final at the 2016 Rio Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 14, 2016. (REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo) (Reuters) - Competing for the first time since winning four gold medals at the Rio Olympics, Simone Biles recorded the top score in the vault, balance beam and floor exercise to win U.S. Classic in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday. While Biles was just 10th in the uneven bars she still had enough to prevail in the city where she was born. Her return to competition represents the start of what she hopes will culminate in further Olympic glory in Tokyo in 2020. Biles, 21, is among more than 100 gymnasts who say they were abused by former Gymnastics USA team doctor Larry Nassar. Nassar received a prison sentence of up to 175 years after pleading guilty to criminal sexual conduct.
Athletics: Integrity unit backs new IAAF anti-doping rules (Reuters) - The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has welcomed new anti-doping regulations in the sport that put greater responsibility on national federations. Following an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) council meeting, national federations will be divided into three categories with differing obligations based on their level of success and the perceived risk of doping. “For too long the strict requirements of the anti-doping rules have fallen largely onto athletes,” AIU chairman David Howman said in a statement. “The IAAF Council should be congratulated for adopting innovative new rules that also make all of its member federations accountable on anti-doping matters. This will help ensure lasting and meaningful change in athletics.” The doping scandal involving Russian athletes, which saw the country’s track and field team banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics, has cast a long and enduring shadow over athletics. The AIU was set up a year ago as part of the IAAF’s effort to separate itself from anti-doping and corruption and rebuild athlete and fan confidence in the sport. The AIU first raised the idea of the new rules with the IAAF council in November and after discussions with all stakeholders recommended the amendments at this week’s meeting in Buenos Aires. The IAAF said four member federations - Kenya, Ethiopia, Belarus, Ukraine - would constitute the current watchlist of Category A, which includes the members most at risk of doping. Athletes from those countries will have to undergo at least three out-of-competition doping tests in the 10 months prior to a world championships or Olympics. The power to categorize members into one of three groups will rest with the AIU board and the new rules will come into effect from 2019, a year before the Tokyo Olympics.
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Series loss highlights Windies deficiencies, says Holder BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Captain Jason Holder on Saturday conceded West Indies still had much work to do in order to ready themselves for next year’s ICC World Cup in England, after they slumped to a 2-1 series defeat to Bangladesh. In the decisive third OneDay International at Warner Park, West Indies were undone by Tamim Iqbal’s second hundred of the series (103) as Bangladesh piled up their highest-ever score against the hosts – 301 for six off their allotted 50 overs. West Indies then came up short by 18 runs as not for the first time, they found acceleration difficult in the middle overs and the innings stalled. This left them requiring 109 from the last 10 overs which proved a mountain too high to climb. “This is something we have to play special attention to [because] the way world cricket is, you have to get 300 runs as a par score and I just believe we should’ve gotten the runs …,” Holder lamented afterwards. He added: “We lost momentum in the middle. Credit to Chris (Gayle), he played an outstanding innings and credit to Rovman (Powell) there at the very end. “I think he gave all that he possibly could to give us a chance but we were a little slow in the middle and we weren’t able to tick over the scoreboard as quickly as we would have wanted to and then the scoring rate kept going up.” Veteran Gayle was superb at the top of the order, stroking 73 from 66 balls with six fours and five sixes. He put on 53 for the first wicket with Evin
Lewis (12) and 52 for the second wicket with Shai Hope who made 64. However, once Gayle departed in the 22nd over, the innings slowed to a crawl as Hope consumed 94 deliveries in his knock, and Powell’s late flourish – an unbeaten 74 off 41 balls – came a little too late to save the Windies. A 48-run defeat in the opener in Georgetown last Sunday had seen the Windies trail the series and even though they snatched a thrilling three-run result in the second ODI three days later, the hosts were not good enough to overcome the final hurdle. “We struggled to put together a complete game throughout the series. We did well to get back in the series in the last game but we just weren’t good enough … in chasing the runs,” Holder explained. “I felt 300 runs was a par score and I think the bowlers did as much as they could possibly do on a surface like this and an outfield like this but we still didn’t bat well enough in the middle period and gave ourselves too much work to do at the end.” The loss was the 12th for the Windies in 17 ODIs inside the last 12 months and left them without a series win in four years. In spite of the disappointment, Holder said there had been some positives, especially the batting of 21-year-old lefthander Shimron Hetmyer who topped the home side’s scoring charts with 207 runs at an average of 69, including a hundred in the second ODI. “We’ve got a lot of work to do obviously but there
Superstar opener Chris Gayle celebrates reaching his 49th ODI half-century in the final match against Bangladesh on Saturday. (Photo courtesy CWI Media) were still a few bright sparks,” Holder noted. “Shimron Hetmyer played outstandingly in the series, young Keemo Paul came into his own as well and Chris is still going as strong as he possibly can go and
obviously Rovman in the last two innings that he played, so a few positives there but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.” West Indies face Bangladesh in the threematch Twenty20 series beginning here Tuesday.
Hamilton in holiday... From page 28 that infuriated both driver and team boss Christian Horner. “We pay multi-millions of pounds for these engines and for first class, or state-of-the-art, product and you can see it’s quite clearly some way below that,” said Horner. Bottas ended up fifth, and was handed a 10 second post-race penalty for the Ricciardo collision, with French driver Pierre Gasly sixth for Toro Rosso. Kevin Magnussen was a lapped seventh for Haas, lifting the U.S.-owned team to fifth and ahead of Force India, with double world champion Fernando Alonso eighth for McLaren on his 37th birthday. Carlos Sainz took two points for Renault in ninth and Romain Grosjean made sure of another for Haas.