Sports

TOKYO: Three women dominated the focus at the Olympics on Monday — US gymnast Simone Biles, Belarus sprinter Krystsina Tsiman­ouskaya and New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard — as politics and personal issues played out at the Tokyo Games. China’s women’s team sprinters took the first gold on offer in the track cycling programme, powering to victory and helping solidify China’s leading …

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has turned down the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) request to not recognise the Kashmir Premier League (KPL), explaining that non-international cricket events do not fall under its jurisdiction. The BCCI and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have exchanged words the past week after it emerged that Indian officials were trying to …

Since July 25, a day hasn’t gone by without someone eulogising Talha Talib for coming that far or cursing the darned ‘system’ for ignoring our track-and-field athletes. Talha Talib’s name has been front and centre everywhere and everyone wants a piece of him. Talib, which literally means seeker, is himself the sought-after (oh the irony!). This Talib overload also means that probably …

TOKYO: Lamont Marcell Jacobs won the most coveted crown in athletics on Sunday, giving Italy its first 100 metres gold on a night of high drama in Tokyo. As Jacobs stormed to the first Olympic title of the post-Usain Bolt era, the fate of a Belarusian sprinter’s Tokyo Games was playing out at a nearby airport. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who had …

TOKYO: Pakistan shooter Ghulam Mustafa Bashir put himself in contention for the final of the men’s 25m rapid fire air pistol event at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday. His compatriot Mohammad Khalil Akhtar has work to do. Bashir finished with 293 points after the first qualifying stage at the Asaka Shooting Range, just inside the cut-off line at sixth. Just …

TOKYO: India reached the semi-finals of the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympics for the first time since 1980 thanks to a 3-1 win over Britain on Sunday to set up a showdown with Belgium at the Tokyo Games. Australia and Germany will contest the other semi-final. India, who had won the last of their eight Olympic hockey gold medals …

BUDAPEST: Frenchman Esteban Ocon won a chaotic Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday while Lewis Hamilton finished third to take the Formula One championship lead from Max Verstappen. Verstappen placed 10th after being taken out early in the race by Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in a first-lap crash that caused him and four others to retire. Bottas, however, will have …

TOKYO: China’s Shi Tingmao claimed her second gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics with victory in the women’s 3 metre springboard diving on Sunday, becoming the second woman to retain both individual and synchronised 3m titles at the Games. Shi’s victory enabled her to match compatriot Guo Jingjing’s back-to-back double 3 metre springboard golds at the Athens and Beijing Olympics. …

Torrential rain which left a sodden outfield resulted in the abandonment of the third Twenty 20 International between the West Indies and Pakistan at the National Stadium in Guyana on Sunday. Just eight balls were bowled at the start of the match with the home side reaching 15 without loss before showers drove the players off the field and intensified …

  The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday responded to allegations made by former South Africa batsman Herschelle Gibbs that it was trying to prevent him from playing the Kashmir Premier League (KPL) 2021, saying that the Indian board was “well within its rights” to do anything in the best interest of its cricketing ecosystem. Earlier …