December 16-22, 2017
Sports Interational
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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
Froome says legacy will not be tainted by ‘adverse’ drugs test Chris Gayle smashed 18 sixes in his unbeaten 146.
Gayle breaks sixes record in Bangladesh Premier League final CHRIS Gayle hit 18 sixes on his way to an unbeaten 146 off 69 balls for Rangpur Riders against Dhaka Dynamites to create Twenty20 cricket history in the Bangladesh Premier League final on Tuesday. Gayle, who was dropped by Shakib Al Hasan on 22, broke the record he set when he smashed 17 sixes in an unbeaten 175 for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in the Indian Premier League’s 2013 final.
The 38-year-old Jamaican’s knock also took him past 11,000 runs in the shortest format of the game and made him the first player to score 20 centuries in T20 cricket. Gayle, who has now struck 819 sixes in T20 cricket, last played a T20 international for West Indies in September and his last test match was against Bangladesh in 2014. His unbeaten 201-run partnership with New Zealand’s Brendan McCullum steered Rangpur Riders to 206 for 1. (Reuters)
Stefan Johansen (L) and Maren Mjelde (R) sign the agreement in London.
Norway’s footballers sign historic equal pay agreement THROUGHOUT 2017 women’s football teams have been standing up for parity with their male counterparts on the international stage -- but in London on Wednesday pen was put to paper on a historic deal which could prove significant in the fight for equality in sport. At the Norwegian Embassy in Britain’s capital, Norway’s men’s and women’s captains -- Stefan Johansen and Maren Mjelde -- and representatives of the Norwegian Football Association (NFF) and Norway’s players’ association (NISO) signed an agreement on equal pay in a deal thought to be the first of its kind in international football. The agreement, says the
Norwegian FA, will mean a pay rise of 2.5 million Norwegian kroner ($302,750) in 2018 for the women’s team, with both national teams receiving six million kroner ($726,900) each next year. Parity was achieved after the 550,000 kroner ($60,000) Norway’s male players receive for commercial activities was switched to the women’s team. “I am proud to be a Norwegian football player,” Norway captain Maren Mjelde said in a statement issued on the Norwegian FA’s website. Making the agreement all the more exceptional is that the proposal for equal pay came from the Norwegian FA, which did not officially recognise women’s football until 1976.
FOUR-TIME Tour de France winner Chris Froome says his legacy will not be tainted after returning an “adverse” drugs test at the Vuelta a Espana. The Team Sky rider had double the allowed level of legal asthma drug salbutamol in his urine. In a BBC interview in Mallorca, the 32-year-old said he “knows the rules” and there was “no wrongdoing”. “I understand this comes as a big shock to people,” he said. “I certainly haven’t broken any rules here.” Cycling’s world governing body the UCI wants more details from Team Sky and says Froome is not suspended. The use of salbutamol is permitted, without the need of a therapeutic use exemption (TUE), but only within certain doses. Froome says he increased his dosage but it was within the legal limits, adding he was “only too happy” to help the UCI “fill in the blanks”. Asked whether he felt his legacy was permanently tainted, Froome said: “No.” He added: “I can understand a lot of people’s reactions, especially given the history of the sport. This is not a positive test. “The sport is coming from a very dark background and I have tried to do everything through my career to show that the sport has turned around.” Froome says he took his team
Chris Froome became the first British winner of the Vuelta a Espana this year.
doctor’s advice to up his inhaler use after his asthma symptoms got worse during the Vuelta. He became the first Briton to win the three-week race around Spain, which finished in September - two months after his latest Tour de France victory. He was notified of the “adverse analytical finding” on 20 September 2017. The urine test, taken on 7 September, showed levels of salbutamol, which is commonly taken for asthma, were at 2,000 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml). That compares to the World AntiDoping Agency’s (Wada) threshold of 1,000 ng/ml. “I have been a professional cyclist now, treating my symptoms and racing with asthma, for 10 years,”
said Froome. “I know what those rules are, I know what those limits are and I have never been over those limits. “I have got a very clear routine when I use my inhaler and how many times. I have given all that information to the UCI to help get to the bottom of it.” Froome was named in leaked medical records by the Russian hackers Fancy Bears as one of the athletes to use TUEs during competition. The documents claimed he was given the exemption for the asthma drug prednisolone in May 2013 and April 2014. Earlier this year, the rider said he rejected a TUE for his asthma during his Tour de France win in 2015.
British Fed Cup player Rae retires, aged 26 BRITISH Fed Cup doubles player Jocelyn Rae has retired from professional tennis at the age of 26. Rae helped Great Britain reach the World Group II play-off earlier this year, teaming up with Laura Robson. She won Commonwealth Games gold for Scotland with Colin Fleming in 2010 and secured 23 titles on the International Tennis Federation circuit. “I have thought about it on and off for a while,” she told BBC East Midlands Today. “I think most professional athletes have it in the back of the mind: ‘Is this lifestyle what I want?’” Rae was first called up to the GB Fed Cup team in 2011, before she suffered a foot injury which caused her to missed two years and stop playing singles. But she featured in the Fed Cup every year from 2014 to 2017, reaching a career-high world doubles ranking of 67 in 2016 and reaching
Jocelyn Rae was first called up to the GB Fed Cup team in 2011, before she suffered a foot injury which caused her to missed two years and stop playing singles.
the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon 2017 mixed doubles competition alongside Ken Skupski.
She played 13 times in the Fed Cup, winning 10 of her matches in the competition. (BBC)