Valencia beaten in coach's first game
MADRID • A change in coach offered Valencia little respite, as they lost 2-0 at home to Athletic Bilbao in La Liga on Wednesday in caretaker manager Voro's first game back in charge.
Valencia sacked coach Albert Celades on Monday following defeats by Eibar and Villarreal, calling on Voro to take temporary charge of the team.
Bilbao moved up to seventh in the standings on 48 points while Valencia are 10th on 46, effectively falling out of Champions League contention as they trail fourth-placed Sevilla by 11 points with five games left.
REUTERS
Russian body misses deadline for fine
MOSCOW • Russia's suspended athletics federation said yesterday it had missed a July 1 deadline to pay US$5 million (S$6.96 million) of a fine to World Athletics, jeopardising the chances of its athletes being able to compete as neutrals.
World Athletics, the global governing body, in March handed the federation a US$10 million fine for breaching anti-doping rules. At the time, it reinstated the process by which Russian athletes could apply to compete internationally as neutrals after demonstrating that they train in a doping-free environment. It said, however, that this process would again be suspended if half of the fine was not paid by July 1.
REUTERS
Abused triathlete commits suicide
SEOUL • A South Korean triathlete took her own life after years of physical and verbal abuse from coaches and having her complaints to sporting authorities allegedly ignored, according to reports.
Choi Suk-hyeon, 22, who won bronze in the junior women's event at the 2015 Asian triathlon championships in Taipei, reportedly died at her team dormitory in Busan last month. According to widely circulated screenshots of her last text message conversation with her mother, she begged her to "lay bare the sins" of her abusers.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Smith goes to Lakers to reunite with James
LOS ANGELES • Free agent guard J. R. Smith has signed with the Los Angeles Lakers for the National Basketball Association's (NBA) season restart, a move that reunited him with superstar LeBron James.
Smith, winner of the NBA's Sixth Man Award as top reserve in 2013 with the Knicks, teamed with James to win an NBA title with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
