Category «Sports»

Semenya can compete without testosterone-reducing medication after Swiss court ruling

Caster Semenya will not need to take testosterone-reducing medication to compete after a Swiss court temporarily suspended a new IAAF ruling. The Olympic 800m champion, 28, last month lost her challenge to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) against the implementation of a restriction on testosterone levels in female runners. The ruling would have affected women competing from 400m to the mile. Her legal representative Dr Dorothee Schramm said: “The court has granted welcome temporary protection to Caster Semenya. The IAAF said it had yet to receive notification of the new decision from the Swiss court. In its initial judgement Cas found that the new rules proposed by the IAAF – athletics’ world governing body – for athletes with …

FIFA drops plans to expand World Cup to 48 teams

Plans to expand the 2022 World Cup to 48 teams have been abandoned by Fifa. Fifa president Gianni Infantino said last year the expansion from 32 teams could be brought forward from 2026 to the 2022 tournament in Qatar. The change would have required Qatar to share hosting duties with other countries in the region. World football’s governing body said after a “thorough and comprehensive consultation process” the change “could not be made now”. Fifa also said it explored the possibility of Qatar hosting a 48-team tournament on its own but has decided not to pursue those plans as there was not enough time “for a detailed assessment of the potential logistical impact”. In a statement, Qatari World Cup organisers said: “Qatar …

Lewis Hamilton wins F1’s race 1,000 in China

Lewis Hamilton took a comfortable victory in the Chinese Grand Prix to hold the championship lead for the first time in 2019. The Mercedes driver passed team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who started from pole position, off the line and controlled Formula 1’s 1,000th race from there. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took third, after the team ordered team-mate Charles Leclerc to let him by in the opening laps. It was Hamilton’s 75th career victory, and it came on a weekend on which he had struggled throughout practice but pulled a lap out of the bag to grab a front-row spot, which proved the foundation for his win. Story by Bbc Sports

Tiger Woods wins 2019 Masters at Augusta to claim 15th major

Tiger Woods produced a scintillating finish to win a fifth Masters title and end an 11-year wait to claim a 15th major. There were raucous celebrations around the 18th green as Woods finished with a two-under-par 70 to win on 13 under, one clear of fellow Americans Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka. Woods, written off by so many so often as he battled back problems in recent years, punched the air in delight, a wide smile across his face, before celebrating with his children at the back of the green. Story by Bbc Sports

Uefa president calls for referees to stop games where there is racial abuse from fans

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin says he will ask referees to be “brave” and stop matches where there is racial abuse from fans. Chelsea and England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi, 18, was subjected to abuse in games against Dynamo Kiev and Montenegro last month. “The moment a match is stopped, or it’s not played, I think that 90% of normal people in the stadium would kick the asses of those idiots,” said Ceferin. “It’s 2019, it’s not 100 years ago.” “We will speak to the referees again, and tell them to be confident, not to be afraid to act,”. “This is a huge problem. Not just the Balkans, all eastern Europe. There’s not much immigration there because everybody wanted to go to western Europe …