Kipsang held for breaking virus curfew

NAIROBI: Kenya’s former world marathon record holder Wilson Kipsang spent the night in jail after being arrested drinking and playing pool with a large group after a nighttime curfew, police said on Friday.

Kipsang, who claimed the world record during the 2013 Berlin marathon, is a police officer who is currently under provisional suspension from the World Integrity Anti-Doping Unit (AIU).

He pleaded guilty in a court on Friday and was released on bail of 5,000 shillings ($47, 43 euros).

“We arrested Kipsang and nine others, including one of the administrators of the county at the Keelu Resort Club drinking and playing pool at 10:00pm,” Iten county police commander John Mwinzi said.

Western Iten attracts thousands of elite Kenyan and foreign athletes who flock into the small town, located at 2,400m above sea level, for altitude training.

“This is a very serious offence. These people are respected and they are supposed to lead by example and not breaking the government orders,” Mwinzi added.

Kenya has imposed a 7:00pm-5:00am curfew in a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Mwinzi has also ordered the arrest of twelve athletes, including two foreigners found training in a group on Monday for disobeying directives on social distance.—AFP

Grand sumo event put off

TOKYO: The Summer Grand Sumo Tournament has been postponed by two weeks from its scheduled May 10 start due to concerns over the coronavirus, the Japan Sumo Association said on Friday.

The annual 15-day event at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan is one of the six major sumo contests held in Japan every year.

The Tokyo tournament is now scheduled to start on May 24, with the next competition to be held in Aichi Prefecture also delayed for two weeks.

The sporting calendar in Japan, like in much of the rest of the world, has been ripped apart by the coronavirus outbreak that has infected 3,425 and killed 78 people in the country.

Also on Friday, Kyodo news reported that Japan’s top domestic football and baseball leagues had decided their seasons will have to be pushed back.

Nippon Professional Baseball had planned for an opening day on April 24 while the J.League, which last featured a match in late February, was also scheduled for a late April restart.

However, at a joint meeting between the two leagues in Tokyo on Friday officials said they would recommend to their teams that the fixtures are postponed further.

“Unfortunately things are getting worse now,” Kyodo quoted Japanese baseball commissioner Atsushi Saito as saying.

“We’ll have to discuss this with all 12 teams, but it looks like we’ll have to be prepared for an extension.”—Reuters

KBBA, Firdous Ittehad join hands to help families

KARACHI: The Karachi Basketball Association and Pakistan Firdous Ittehad have joined hands with prominent people of leading concerns to distribute ration packages among the needy people in this very tough period of coronavirus outbreak that has rocked the entire world.

A joint press release issued in this regard by KBBA chief Ghulam Mohammad on Friday thanked the tremendous help and support in putting together the ration packages distribution campaign offered by Gov Rotary Club Dr Farhan Essa of Essa Laboratories, CEO Maazjee Nadeem Ahmed, Jameel Ahmed of KMC’s CSR division, KPT’s Mahmood Moulvi, Pepsico’s Ikhlaq Ahmed, Inverex Pvt Ltd, KW&SB’s chief engineer Nadeem Ahmed and ex-KCCA President Professor Ejaz Ahmed Faruqi.

Over 2200 families have been provided the ration packages in the current campaign organised by KBBA and Pakistan Firdous Ittehad and more efforts are underway.—Agencies

Tour of Switzerland cancelled

PARIS: The Tour de Suisse, which is also known as Tour of Switzerland, was cancelled on Friday in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and the organisers of June’s eight-day cycling race said they will not reschedule it for later in the year.

“This is the first time since the Second World War that the traditional event will not take place,” said the statement on the race website, noting that Swiss authorities had not yet banned the event.

The tour, scheduled for June 7-14, had been the earliest top-level race still standing on the cycling calendar.

These included the “support from the army and police for the safe execution of the event,” travel restrictions for teams from other countries and the risk of “additional strain on the Swiss health system due to possible crashes”.—AFP

United players to give 30% pay to NHS

MANCHESTER: Manchester United players will donate 30 per cent of their wages to local hospitals and health services in the first major coronavirus gesture from a full Premier League squad.

The move was the idea of club captain Harry Maguire and was given full backing by the players, the Daily Mail reported on Friday.

United are continuing to pay all match-day staff during the crisis and have not sought to use the government’s furlough scheme to help struggling companies protect jobs.

The independent move by United players came as talks continued between the PFA players’ union and the Football League and Football Association, looking at possible wage cuts or deferrals during the current shutdown of the game.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2020