Warholm sets men’s 300m hurdles record at ‘Impossible Games’
OSLO: Reigning world 400-meter hurdles champion Karsten Warholm of Norway stormed to a 33.78-second world best performance in the rarely-run event of 300m hurdles at the “Impossible Games,” an innovative exhibition track and field meet here on Thursday. After the cancellation of the Diamond League meet in Oslo due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers chose to stage an innovative multi-discipline event, featuring athletes mainly from Norway and neighboring countries, behind closed doors with cardboard fans placed in the stands and some competitions held virtually, reports Xinhua news agency. The “Impossible Games” also saw a series of unorthodox events such as 600m, 1,000m, 25,000m as well as 200m hurdles. (IANS)
Definitive schedule for NBA restart
NEW YORK: The NBA gave teams a more definitive timetable for the restart to the pandemic-interrupted season Friday, including required coronavirus testing that is set to begin this month and mandatory individual workouts in early July before training camps. The league gave teams the go-ahead to immediately start allowing two assistant coaches to deal with voluntary player workouts. The rule had been one coach with one player since teams were given the green light to re-open facilities for the voluntary workouts last month. NBA head coaches can be one of those two coaches involved in the voluntary sessions starting June 23, though social distancing and other rules would still apply. (PTI)
Thiem joins Mouratoglou’s league
MUMBAI: World number three Dominic Thiem will be the fourth top-10 player from the men’s ATP Tour to join the field in the innovative new tennis league starting in France on Saturday, organisers announced. The Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS), co-owned by Patrick Mouratoglou, the long-time coach of Serena Williams, will have Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, Italian Matteo Berrettini and David Goffin of Belgium, joining six others to compete in a round-robin format over five weeks. Thiem, who has reached three Grand Slam finals, will, however, miss the starting weekend of the tournament and play his opening match on June 30, having committed to a charity event hosted by world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the Balkans. Frenchman Elliot Benchetrit will be Thiem’s replacement for the opening two rounds of the tournament, which will be held without fans at Mouratoglou’s academy in Nice, and will be live-streamed on subscription-based platform utslive.tv. (Reuters)
Dronacharya award recommendation
NEW DELHI: Former national boxing coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu has recommended two-time Commonwealth Games medal-winner Manoj Kumar’s personal coach and elder brother Rajesh Kumar Rajound for this year’s Dronacharya award. Being a former awardee himself, Sandhu is entitled to recommend names for the national sports awards. The 37-year-old Rajound, an AIBA 2-star coach, has played a key role in shaping Olympian and Arjuna awardee Manoj’s career. He also steered Kurukshetra University, where he is currently employed, to the top position in the Khelo India University Games’ boxing competition. (PTI)