Other Sports

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt has hinted he could be tempted out of retirment if former coach Glen Mills asked him. The world 100m and 200m record holder and eight-time Olympic champion told Variety magazine he had no plans to resurrect his sprinting career. However the 33-year-old told Variety magazine in a video interview he would at ... Read More »

LONDON – Strawberries and cream are just as much part of the Wimbledon experience as tennis in pristine whites on the lush green lawns of the All England Club. But this year the courts are empty and there is no clink of cutlery on plates in the rarefied surroundings of the London venue. AFP Sport spoke to two people at ... Read More »

Cycling’s Tour de France should have embarked from the Mediterranean city of Nice this weekend, but the two-month coronavirus delay will heighten the drama on a “unique edition”, race organiser Christian Prudhomme has told AFP. Read More »

BELGRADE – Men’s world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic said on Tuesday he and his wife have tested positive for coronavirus after taking part in a tennis exhibition series he organized. “The moment we arrived in Belgrade we went to be tested. My result is positive, just as Jelena’s, while the results of our children are negative,” Djokovic said ... Read More »

PARIS – Men’s Grand Slam singles record-holder Roger Federer said Wednesday he would be sidelined until 2021 after undergoing keyhole surgery on his right knee. “I plan to take the necessary time to be 100 percent ready to play at my highest level,” the 38-year-old said in a statement on Twitter. “I will be missing my fans and the tour ... Read More »

BRUSSELS  – High-ranking Olympic official Pierre-Olivier Beckers on Saturday made plain that the delayed Tokyo Olympics “will be held in 2021 or not at all”. The Belgian was reiterating the stance put forward by Japan and International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach that next year was the last chance to hold the Games postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Today ... Read More »

DHAKA – Heroic freedom fighter, renowned sports organiser and Bangladesh Archery Federation (BAF) founding former assistant general secretary Sayed Khan Dalu passed away on Tuesday last due to long illness at his residence in the city, said a BAF press release today. He was 67.He left behind wife, only son, only daughter and host of well wishers to mourn his ... Read More »

LONDON  (BSS/AFP) – Andy Murray insists tennis must take it slowly as the sport’s bosses consider when to return after the coronavirus. The men’s ATP and women’s WTA tours are suspended until at least July 13 due to the pandemic, while this year’s Wimbledon has been cancelled. Premier League football clubs are hoping to finish their postponed season in the ... Read More »

Rafael Nadal says it will be “very difficult” for tennis to return to action any time soon and is concerned about the risk of injuries when the sport resumes. Nadal spoke in a joint interview with NBA player Pau Gasol that was published by Spanish newspapers on Monday. “I don’t think training would be a problem, but competing… I see ... Read More »

ATHENS  (BSS/AFP) – Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas said on Tuesday the coronavirus pandemic lockdown has given him a chance to brush up on his French. The 21-year-old ranked sixth in the world has returned home with the global season on hold due to the COVID-19 outbreak. “It’s an opportunity to stay a little longer with my family and do ... Read More »

The Rogers Cup women’s tennis tournament will not be played this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tennis Canada announced the event, scheduled for Aug. 7-16 in Montreal, is off the schedule. Quebec’s government announced Friday that no sporting events could be held through Aug. 31, though it left the door slightly open for pro teams. “Our priority in the ... Read More »

TOKYO (AP) — As the coronavirus spreads in Japan, the chief executive of the Tokyo Games said Friday he can’t guarantee the postponed Olympics will be staged next year — even with a 16-month delay. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued an emergency declaration this week to battle the virus, putting the country under restrictions after it seemed it had ... Read More »

TOKYO (AP) — The under-construction Athletes Village for the Tokyo Olympics could be used as a temporary hospital for coronavirus patients. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has been talking about the possibility of occupying the massive development on Tokyo Bay, which is to house up to 11,000 Olympic and 4,400 Paralympic athletes and staff during the games. The complex, which will ... Read More »

TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese professional baseball and soccer seasons will be further delayed as the country grapples with the outbreak of the coronavirus. Japanese professional baseball had aimed to open its season on April 24 after previously pushing it back from March 20. After a meeting Friday of a joint coronavirus task force established by the NPB and soccer’s ... Read More »

TOKYO (AP) — The countdown clocks have been reset and are ticking again for the Tokyo Olympics. The model outside Tokyo Station, and others across the Japanese capital, were switched on almost immediately after organizers announced the new dates — July 23 to Aug. 8, 2021. The clocks read 479 days to go. That seems a long way away, but ... Read More »

Michael Phelps has been open about his mental health struggles, even as he became the most decorated athlete in Olympic history. Now, with the Tokyo Games on hold because of the coronavirus, the retired swimming great worries that some athletes may have trouble coping with this unprecedented postponement. “It’s a total bamboozle,” Phelps told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “There’s ... Read More »

IOC members, national Olympic committees and athletes were all racing toward the same conclusion Monday: The Tokyo Olympics are not going to take place this summer. Craig Reedie, a longtime member of the International Olympic Committee, told The Associated Press that everyone can see where things are headed, with the coronavirus pandemic spreading and Olympic hopefuls around the world unable ... Read More »

TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics are going to happen — but almost surely in 2021 rather than in four months as planned. This became clear after the IOC on Sunday announced it was considering a postponement. Major Olympic nations like Canada and Australia have added pressure by saying they will not go if the games are staged this year. ... Read More »

SYDNEY (AP) — The Australian Olympic Committee is advising its athletes to prepare for an Olympics in 2021. Ian Chesterman, Australia’s team leader for Tokyo, on Monday said “It’s clear the games can’t be held in July” because of the coronavirus pandemic. “Our athletes have been magnificent in their positive attitude to training and preparing, but the stress and uncertainty ... Read More »

TOKYO (AP) — As infections soared in Europe and the United States and the world economy spiraled downward, Japan on Monday hinted at the next possible victim of the globe-spanning coronavirus: The 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged that a postponement of the crown jewel of the sporting world could be unavoidable. Canada and Australia then added ... Read More »

Former Olympic swimming champion Cameron van der Burgh said he has contracted the coronavirus and added his voice to concerns for athletes’ well-being if the Tokyo Games go ahead as scheduled. Van der Burgh, who retired from competitive swimming in 2018, posted a series of messages on social media on Sunday describing how he had been ill with the virus ... Read More »

GENEVA (AP) — The future of soccer could be fewer games and fewer top competitions to help avoid a financial crisis, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a newspaper interview published Monday. With soccer around the world in near-total shutdown and no end in sight because of the coronavirus pandemic, Infantino said the sport risked going into recession. “Maybe we ... Read More »

With more and more calls to postpone the Tokyo Olympics because of the coronavirus outbreak, it’s worth noting that this every-four-years spectacle has been rocked before by traumatic events. Three other times, the games were canceled altogether because of World War I (1916) and World War II (1940 and 1944) — and in those latter two quadrennials, both the Summer ... Read More »

TOKYO (AP/UNB) — The Olympic flame has arrived in Japan from Greece. Next comes the torch relay around the country, which is scheduled to start on Thursday from Fukushima prefecture in northern Japan. Organizers have asked crowds to be restrained, but have been imprecise about what that means. Greek officials last week stopped a relay there on the second day ... Read More »

Matsushima Air Base, Japan (AP/UNB) — The Olympic flame arrived in Japan on Friday from Greece in a scaled-down ceremony at an air base in northern Japan. The flame, carried in a special canister, touched down amid growing doubts if the Tokyo Games can open as scheduled on July 24 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers and the International Olympic ... Read More »

Brisbane, Australia (AP/UNB) — Australian sports fans didn’t really need a reminder about the coronavirus, but they got one anyway Friday when a number of major events Down Under were affected by concerns over the pandemic. And more are likely to follow. As the Australian Formula One Grand Prix was being called off in Melbourne, Cricket Australia announced that three ... Read More »

Dhaka – The 8th Sikder Group Independence Day Cup Golf Tournament 2020 ended at the Kurmitola Golf Club here on Friday. Sikder Group & R&R Aviation Ltd, a concern of the group, organised three-day the international tournament on the occasion of the ‘Mujib Borsho’ to commemorate the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, said a ... Read More »

Dhaka – Dinajpur Government Jubilee School maintained their winning run in the Bangabandhu First Security Islami Bank National School Hockey Tournament beating Armanitola  Government High School of Dhaka by 3-1 goals at Maulana Bhashani National Stadium here on Wednesday. Mohammad Morsalin scored two field goals in the 13th and 59th minutes and Mohammad Raihan netted the other goal in the ... Read More »

Dhaka – The Bangabandhu Cup Golf Open 2020, the US$400,000 Asian Tour event that was poised to become the most lucrative professional golf event in Bangladesh, scheduled for March 25-28 at the Kurmitola Golf Club in Dhaka, has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 concerns. Cho Minn Thant, Commissioner and CEO, Asian Tour said: “Several new cases of COVID-19 ... Read More »

Adelaide (AP/UNB) — Australia has advanced to the Davis Cup Finals in November with a tight 3-1 win over Brazil on hard courts at the Memorial Drive tennis center on Saturday. John Millman beat Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro 6-7, (6), 7-6 (3) 7-6 (3) in the deciding match. Millman took the court after Australia’s doubles team of James Duckworth and John ... Read More »