Sports

LONDON — Maria Sharapova was suspended from tennis for two years Wednesday for testing positive for meldonium at the Australian Open, and immediately responded by saying she would appeal the decision to sport's highest court.

The ruling by an independent three-person panel appointed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said Sharapova did not intend to cheat, but that she bore "sole responsibility" and "very significant fault" for the positive test.

"While the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the anti-doping rules, I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension," Sharapova said in a statement. "The tribunal, whose members were selected by the ITF, agreed that I did not do anything intentionally wrong, yet they seek to keep me from playing tennis for two years. I will immediately appeal the suspension portion of this ruling to, the Court of Arbitration for Sport."

The five-time Grand Slam champion was provisionally suspended by the ITF in early March, when she announced at a news conference in Los Angeles that she failed a doping test in January.

Sharapova said then she was not aware that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had barred athletes from using meldonium, also known as mildronate, as of January 1.

Her lawyer, John Haggerty, said Sharapova took the substance after that date.

Lawyers representing the ITF argued their side, while Haggerty argued hers. He said she spoke at the hearing.

In addition to testing positive at the Australian Open, the ITF said she also failed a test for meldonium in an out-of-competition control in Moscow on February 2.

Sharapova said she first was prescribed the Latvian-made drug, typically used for heart conditions, for medical reasons in 2006. She could have been barred from competing for up to four years.

"Today with their decision of a two-year suspension, the ITF tribunal unanimously concluded that what I did was not intentional," Sharapova said. "The tribunal found that I did not seek treatment from my doctor for the purpose of obtaining a performance enhancing substance.

"The ITF spent tremendous amounts of time and resources trying to prove I intentionally violated the anti-doping rules and the tribunal concluded I did not."

The ban throws into doubt the on-court future of Sharapova, a 29-year-old Russian who is one of the most well-known and — thanks to a wide array of endorsements — highest-earning athletes in the world.

She is a former top-ranked player who is one of 10 women in tennis history with a career Grand Slam — at least one title from each of the sport's four most important tournaments. So much came so easily for her at the start: Wimbledon champion in 2004 at age 17; No. 1 in the rankings at 18; US Open champion at 19; Australian Open champion at 20.

An operation to her right shoulder in 2008 took her off the tour for months, and her ranking dropped outside the top 100. But she worked her way back, and in 2012, won the French Open, then added a second title in Paris two years later.

Sharapova hasn't played since a quarterfinal loss to Serena Williams at this year's Australian Open, and she is ranked 26th this week.

Meldonium increases blood flow, which improves exercise capacity by carrying more oxygen to the muscles.

In April, citing a lack of scientific evidence about how long the drug remains in a person's system, WADA said that provisional suspensions may be lifted if it is determined that an athlete took meldonium before it went on the list of banned substances.

About 200 athletes tested positive for meldonium this year from various sports and countries — many, like Sharapova, were Russian — and some said the drug stayed in their systems for months even though they stopped using it in 2015.

But, according to Haggerty, that was not the case for Sharapova.

PARIS — A health study came to the defence of certain dietary fats on Tuesday, adding fuel to a scientific row over low-fat guidelines that have bedevilled dieters for nearly half a century.

The low-fat movement has not prevented a global epidemic of obesity linked to health concerns such as diabetes, heart attacks and stroke, said researchers who probed whether fat in olive oil and nuts pile on the pounds. 

Of nearly 7,500 overweight and obese people enrolled for a trial in Spain, those who boosted “healthy” fat intake did not gain more weight than those who tried cutting back on all fat, researchers found.

“Our trial demonstrates that a high-fat, high vegetable diet such as [a] Mediterranean diet does not promote weight gain,” study author Ramon Estruch of the University of Barcelona told AFP.

Commentators cautioned against reading too much into the trial, which targeted a very distinct group of people: Caucasians aged 55-80, already overweight and at risk of heart disease. 

Even those limiting fat had much more of it in their diet than the 30 per cent recommended by the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO), they said.

For decades, dietary fat has been blamed for artery-clogging cholesterol linked to heart disease and stroke.

Recently, researchers started poking holes in the hypothesis, and seeking to distinguish between different fats.

Last month, Britain’s National Obesity Forum published a controversial report titled: “Eat fat, cut the carbs and avoid snacking to reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes”.

In April, a study said replacing animal fat with vegetable oil seems not to lower heart disease risk, and may even boost it.

Too fat, or not too fat?

Last October, a review of 53 scientific studies said low-fat diets did not yield greater weight loss than low-carb ones.

The latest study divided people into three groups. At the start, fat represented about 40 per cent of the diet of all the individuals.

Two of the groups were allowed an unrestricted-calorie “Mediterranean” diet — one with as much olive oil as they wished, and the other with unlimited nuts.

The third group were given the traditional, avoid-all-fat, advice.

After five years, the third group had reduced fat intake to 37.3 per cent, while the other two increased theirs to about 42 per cent.

People lost a little weight in all the groups — less than a kilogramme on average. All saw a slight increase in average waist circumference, especially the “low-fat” group.

This meant “the fear of weight gain from high-fat foods need no longer be an obstacle to adherence to a dietary pattern such as the Mediterranean diet” with its widely documented health benefits, said Estruch.

However, the findings did not amount to a blank cheque for eating “unhealthy fats” such as processed meat, sweetened drinks, deserts or fast foods, he added.

In a comment carried by the journal, Dariush Mozaffarian of the Massachusetts-based Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, argued it was “time to end our fear of fat”.

“Dietary guidelines should be revised to lay to rest the outdated, arbitrary limits on total fat consumption,” he wrote.

“Calorie-obsessed caveats and warnings about healthier, higher-fat choices such as nuts, phenolic-rich vegetable oils, yoghurt, and even perhaps cheese, should also be dropped.”

Fat chance

Some were more cautious.

“The differences in fat and carbohydrate intake between different groups was rather modest and, therefore, the results don’t support either a low-fat or low-carbohydrate approach to weight loss,” University of Reading nutritional scientist Gunter Kuhnle told the Science Media Centre in London. 

Added University of Oxford diet expert Susan Jebb: “It is impossible from this study to draw any conclusion about the impact of low fat diets on body weight.”

The World Health Organisation said it would publish a review of fat guidelines this year.

“At the moment, the WHO still recommends to keep the energy intake from fat low,” the UN body’s nutrition head Francesco Branca told AFP.

“Certainly we don’t recommend to increase ad libitum [as desired].”

In countries where fat intake has skyrocketed, such as China, there has been an associated rise in obesity and health problems, he pointed out.

A healthy diet will vary from person to person, said Branca, depending on factors such as age and lifestyle, and “isolating a single nutrient from the context of the dietary recommendation can be a little bit problematic”.

Published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, the study was funded by the Spanish government. 

Oil and nuts companies donated the olive oil and nuts that the trial participants consumed, but had no role in the study design, data collection or analysis, the authors said. 

MADRID — Spanish prosecutors want Neymar to stand trial for fraud because of alleged irregularities involving his transfer to Barcelona three years ago.

Neymar and his father, who’s also his agent, committed fraud by trying to hide the real amount of his transfer in order to pay a lower commission to the investment group which owned part of his rights at the time, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

A judge will analyse the prosecutors’ demand and decide whether to install a trial. Neymar and his father could face a prison sentence of up to two years.

They maintained their innocence when they appeared before a judge in Madrid in February.

Prosecutors also cited Barcelona and its former president Sandro Rosell, as well as the former president of Brazilian club Santos. They have denied any wrongdoing.

The accusations came a few days after Lionel Messi went on trial for tax fraud in Barcelona, where he and his father were accused of defrauding Spain’s tax authority of 4.1 million euros ($4.6 million) from 2007-09. A ruling is expected in the coming weeks. Also this year, Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano was handed a suspended one-year prison sentence for not paying nearly 1.5 million euros ($1.7 million) in taxes for 2011-12.

Brazilian investment group DIS claims it was financially damaged because Barcelona and Neymar allegedly withheld the real amount of the player’s transfer fee from Santos in 2013, receiving a smaller compensation than it was entitled to.

Santos officially received 17.1 million euros for Neymar’s transfer to Barcelona, but prosecutors said the total amount paid by the Spanish club was 25.1 million euros, meaning DIS would be entitled to an additional 3.2 million euros.

Prosecutors said the difference comes from payments made by Barcelona for the future acquisitions of other players, as well as partnerships for friendly matches between the clubs.

According to court documents, DIS paid 5 million reals (1.25 million euros, $1.3 million) for 40 per cent of Neymar’s rights in 2009.

Barcelona said the Neymar transfer cost the club a total of 57.1 million euros, with 17 million euros going to the club and 40 million euros going to a company owned by Neymar’s father. Investigations in Spain have claimed that Barcelona spent more than 80 million euros to acquire the Brazilian.

Court documents said Neymar’s contract with Santos, which was valid until July 2014, had a buy-out clause of 65 million euros, but the club authorised Neymar’s father to begin negotiating with other clubs before the contract ended.

They reached a deal with Barcelona, and the club paid 10 million euros in advance to Neymar’s father in 2011 to guarantee the player’s signing.

AMMAN — Jordan lost 2-0 to Thailand in the King’s Cup — an international football tournament organised in by the Football Association of Thailand — which concluded in Bangkok on Sunday.

Thailand won the tournament for the record-extending 14th time.

Jordan had beaten the UAE 3-1, while Thailand beat Syria 7-6 on penalties after the match ended 2-2 to reach the final.

The tournament has been played since 1968 with the exception of 1983, 1985, 2008, 2011 and 2014.

South Korea won the title in 2015.

PARIS — Considering she won her maiden Grand Slam title on the surface that suits her game the least, Garbine Muguruza is being tipped as the player who will end up ruling women’s tennis.

The 22-year-old Spaniard claimed the French Open by defeating Serena Williams in straight sets on Saturday, 11 months after losing the Wimbledon final to the World No. 1.

On Monday, Muguruza, whose hard-hitting game is at its devastating best on fast courts, will be second in the WTA rankings going into the grass season.

“My dream is to continue and win more tournaments, similar tournaments, and to dominate,” the Venezuela-born Muguruza told reporters after her 7-5, 6-4 victory on Court Philippe Chatrier.

“When I am on the court I want to dictate my game and bring more of these cups back home... This win is like a new pulse given to women’s tennis,” added the Spaniard, who became the second player after Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber to beat Williams in a Grand Slam final this year.

Muguruza, who had never won a title on clay before Saturday, proved that she had very few weak points as she kept Williams on the run throughout the final.

Her powerful first serve allows her to dictate play from the baseline and she spanks winners with her forehand or backhand with equal ease.

Muguruza also learnt to control her emotions, which overwhelmed her in last year’s Wimbledon final.

“I’m convinced she was panicking a bit in the inside, but she managed these moments very well,” said her coach, Frenchman Sam Sumyk, who also guided Belarussian Victoria Azarenka to her first major title at the 2012 Australian Open, and to the top of the world rankings.

She had four match points on Williams’s serve, which the American saved, but Muguruza ended the contest on her fifth attempt with a lob that landed on the baseline.

“She’s number two after this, only one more step to be number one and I am sure she’s going to win many more grand slams,” former Spanish player Conchita Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon champion and 2000 Roland Garros runner-up, told reporters.

“She’s a great player on any surface, she is a complete player. Spain is very lucky to have this unbelievable tennis player.”

Williams, who was aiming to equal Steffi Graf’s professional-era record of 22 majors, was the favourite to win her third Paris title in four years but she fell one win short of the target — just as she had done at the Australian Open in January.

Her coach, however, warned that the 34-year-old Williams would stay on Muguruza’s radar for quite some time.

“It shows how hard it is to win a Grand Slam, to equal records. It will take the time it will take, it was tough to win the 17th, the 18th, it will be hard to win the 22nd and the 23rd but we will do it,” Patrick Mouratoglou told reporters.

“It’s a matter of time.”

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — Former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, whose record-setting boxing career, flair for showmanship and political stands made him one of the best-known figures of the 20th century, died on Friday aged 74.

Ali, who had long suffered from Parkinson’s syndrome which impaired his speech and made the once-graceful athlete almost a prisoner in his own body, died a day after he was admitted to a Phoenix-area hospital with a respiratory ailment.

Even so, Ali’s youthful proclamation of himself as “the greatest” rang true until the end for the millions of people worldwide who admired him for his courage both inside and outside the ring.

Along with a fearsome reputation as a fighter, he spoke out against racism, war and religious intolerance, while projecting an unshakeable confidence and humour that became a model for African-Americans at the height of the civil rights era.

“Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest human beings I have ever met,” said George Foreman, who lost to Ali in Zaire in a classic 1974 bout known as the “Rumble in Jungle”.

“No doubt he was one of the best people to have lived in this day and age. To put him as a boxer is an injustice.”

Ali enjoyed a popularity that transcended the world of sports, even though he rarely appeared in public in his later years.

“We lost an icon,” said Delson Dez, 28, a construction worker, who was holding up a poster of the fighter in Scottsdale, Arizona soon after Ali’s death was confirmed in a statement issued by his family late Friday evening.

“He talked trash but he backed it up,” Dez said.

Few could argue with his athletic prowess at his peak in the 1960s. With his dancing feet and quick fists, he could — as he put it — float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. He was the first person to win the heavyweight championship three times.

But Ali became much more than a colourful and interesting athlete. He spoke boldly against racism in the ‘60s, as well as the Vietnam War.

During and after his championship reign, Ali met scores of world leaders and for a time he was considered the most recognisable person on Earth, known even in remote villages far from the United States.

Ali’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s came about three years after he retired from boxing in 1981.

His influence extended far beyond boxing. He became the unofficial spokesman for millions of blacks and oppressed people around the world because of his refusal to compromise his opinions and stand up to white authorities.

“We lost a giant today. Boxing benefitted from Muhammad Ali’s talents but not nearly as much as mankind benefitted from his humanity,” said Manny Pacquiao, a boxer and politician in the Philippines, where Ali fought archrival Joe Frazier for a third time in a brutal 1975 match dubbed the “Thrilla in Manila”.

In a realm where athletes often battle inarticulateness, as well as their opponents, Ali was known as the Louisville Lip and loved to talk, especially about himself.

“Humble people, I’ve found, don’t get very far,” he once told a reporter.

His taunts could be brutal. “Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head,” he once said. He also dubbed Frazier a “gorilla” but later apologised and said it was all to promote the fight.

Once asked about his preferred legacy, Ali said: “I would like to be remembered as a man who won the heavyweight title three times, who was humorous and who treated everyone right. As a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him... who stood up for his beliefs... who tried to unite all humankind through faith and love.

“And if all that’s too much, then I guess I’d settle for being remembered only as a great boxer who became a leader and a champion of his people. And I wouldn’t even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was.”

Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 17, 1942, as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., a name shared with a 19th century slavery abolitionist. He changed his name after his conversion to Islam.

Ali is survived by his wife, the former Lonnie Williams, who knew him when she was a child in Louisville, along with his nine children.

AMMAN — Jordan beat Lebanon 83-82 to clinch second place at the West Asian Basketball Association (WABA) Championship.

Jordan advance alongside Iran and Iraq to the FIBA Asia Challenge (know earlier, between 2004 and 2010 as the FIBA Asia Stanković Cup and from 2012 to 2014 as the FIBA Asia Cup).

Jordan needed overtime to beat Lebanon after original time ended 75-75. It earlier lost to Iran 87-75, beat Iraq 84-80 and Syria 86-63.

Last year, Jordan took the runner-up spot after they beat Syria 80-69 at the WABA Championship and clinched one of three qualifying slots to the tourney in China. Lebanon took top spot and Palestine advanced for the first time ever.

Host China and 2014 FIBA Asia Cup champion Iran automatically qualified to the FIBA Asia  which qualifies the winner to represent Asia at the 2016 Summer Olympics basketball tournament.

In 2014, Jordan won the WABA title for the second time in the absence of both the Lebanese and senior Iranian teams and represented the West Asia zone at the 5th FIBA Asia Cup where China, as well defending FIBA Asia Championship titleholders Iran had automatically qualified. The Cup (previously known as Stankovich Cup) is held every two years. Qatar were champs in 2004, Jordan in 2008, Lebanon in 2010 and Iran in 2012 and 2014.

Jordan first won the West Asia title in 2002. In the 2011 qualifiers, Jordan finished second behind Iran and qualified to the 26th FIBA Asia Championship. Jordan reached the final, but lost the chance qualify to the 2012 Olympic Games losing the final 70-69 to China. Jordan then played at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for Men but lost to Puerto Rico and Greece and was eliminated. The OQT gave Asia’s second and third teams a chance to qualify to the London Games basketball event. 

Although the men’s basketball team reached the World Championship in 2010 — and was the only Jordanian team to actually reach a world championship in a team sport alongside the junior team in 1995 — official support for Jordan’s second most popular game is seen as below par by most observers, leading to a decline in the game locally and less competitive advantage on the regional scene.

AMMAN — Jordan plays Thailand for the King’s Cup title — an international football tournament organised in by the Football Association of Thailand —which concludes in Bangkok on Sunday. Jordan beat the UAE 3-1 while Thailand beat Syria 7-6 on penalties after the match ended 2-2. Jordan will now aim to beat the hosts for the $50,000 prize money in the final match. The tournament has been played since 1968 with the exception of 1983, 1985, 2008, 2011 and 2014. South Korea won the title in 2015.

The national team regrouped last week for the upcoming phase of regional competitions. Following the King’s Cup, Jordan will be in the midst of preparations for the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers starting in March 2017. The Jordan Football Association announced the team will play Iraq on August 31 and Bahrain on September 6. This week, Jordan went up to 80th in the latest FIFA Rankings issued over the weekend.

The Kingdom also went up to 8th in Asia trailing Iran (39), South Korea (50), Japan (53), Australia (59), Saudi Arabia (65), Uzbekistan (66), the UAE (70). Argentina is still No. 1 ahead of Belgium, Columbia, Germany, Chile, Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Uruguay and Austria.

United States football audiences can turn their attention to the skills of Latin American players this month after a year of watching dozens of FIFA officials from the region parade before US law enforcement officers.

Argentina captain Lionel Messi, Chile playmaker Arturo Vidal and Colombia midfielder James Rodriguez are among the leading players expected to light up the Copa America Centenario from June 3-26 in 10 US cities.

The tournament was organised to mark the 100th anniversary of the Copa America, the world’s oldest continental competition first played in Buenos Aires in 1916.

It has been boosted to a 16-team format for the first time with the inclusion of six teams from CONCACAF, which governs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

That the plan to stage the tournament outside of South America for the first time has survived the massive cull of top Latin American football officials in the so-called Fifagate scandal is remarkable, though holding it in the United States is less of a surprise.

There had been ideas afoot for some time to expand the event to the whole of the Americas and, in light of last year’s revelations of fraud and bribery within FIFA, the US was arguably the only clean venue available with the necessary infrastructure.

Messi, the world’s top player who added to his many records at Barcelona with another Liga and Copa del Rey double this season, will continue his quest for a first victory with his national team after defeats in the finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and last year’s Copa America in Chile.

Argentina are favourites with rival powerhouse Brazil fielding something of an experimental side in the absence if their star Neymar, Messi’s Barcelona teammate, who is being freed up for the Rio Olympic football tournament instead.

Chile, with Bundesliga winner Vidal of Bayern Munich and Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez their key players, will be defending the title after an upset victory over Argentina on penalties in the 2015 final gave them their first international title.

Pan-American future?

Colombia, on their day, can beat anyone and will be looking to James, a Champions League winner with Real Madrid, to lead their bid for a second title after winning the 2001 tournament on home soil.

Mexico, familiar with US venues where they can count on massive support having played 11 and won five CONCACAF Gold Cup tournaments north of their border, see it as a good chance to win the tournament in which they have twice reached the final.

A victory for a CONCACAF side, with hosts the United States also in with a chance, would probably seal the future of the tournament as a Pan-American event.

Uruguay, whose 40-goal Barcelona striker Luis Suarez is nursing an injury that casts doubts as to what stage he will make his appearance, represent with Argentina the long history of what was formerly called the South American championship.

The archrivals from opposite shores of the River Plate met in 12 finals in the first 51 years of the competition, including the first, won by Uruguay who hold a record 15 titles, one more than Argentina.

Five times world champion Brazil have won five of their eight titles in the last 16 years but failed to get past the quarter-finals in the last two.

They will be banking on young hopefuls like Lucas Lima to give coach Dunga his second crown after they beat Argentina in Venezuela in the 2007 final in his first spell in charge — when Messi made his first appearance in the tournament.

NEW YORK — Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi literally coasted to victory at the Brickyard in the 100th running of the race on Sunday but his triumph was anything but worry free.

IndyCar series rookie Rossi won the fabled race after a bold tactical move to forgo refuelling to save time and in this individualist sport relied on help from his Andretti Autosport teammates to make it to the finish.

Rossi says he ran out of gas at Turn Four of the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval with about 400 metres left.

“I was just praying that there was nobody coming up behind me,” the 24-year-old Californian told Reuters on Tuesday. “It was the longest trip from Turn Four to the start/finish line.”

He had petered down to 209 kilometres per hour by the time he got the chequered flag, almost 161kph slower than he should have been, but still crossed the line with more than four seconds to spare.

“I kept looking at the Yard of Bricks [marking the finish], looking at my rearview mirror, saying ‘Please, may nobody come and pass me.’

“When I finally got my car over the finishing line I looked to my right and it was ‘Yeah, we did it. Thank god’,” Rossi said from the Empire State Building Observation Deck on the 86th floor about the moment that he felt on top of the world.

Standing next to the giant silver Borg-Warner Trophy whose Art-Deco design looked at home in the iconic Manhattan skyscraper, Rossi praised his fellow Andretti team drivers.

“One of the ways we found most efficient to saving fuel was being in the draft of others,” said Rossi.

“So Townsend [Bell] helped me out quite a bit by towing me around for probably about 12 laps and Ryan [Hunter-Reay, the 2014 Indy 500 winner] helped me at the end by towing me for four laps.

“It was a huge team effort from Andretti Autosport.”

Teammate Carlos Munoz finished second as Rossi’s No. 98 Honda finally came to rest short of the pit entrance.

Rossi, who joined the Andretti team after driving on the Formula One circuit, said pulling together as a team was not unusual for them.

“The four teammates and the fifth added for the 500 are an incredibly close knit group and after every day we sit down in a circle and discuss our individual day and what worked and what didn’t work,” said Rossi after only his second race on an oval.

“That’s how as a unit, as a team, we move forward.”

Since winning the Indy 500, time has been a blur for Rossi, who lost count of how many interviews he had done with media during a whirlwind day in New York.

“It’s been insane,” said Rossi, breaking into a laugh when asked if he was in danger of running out of gas.

“I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit on the limit.

“But it’s an amazing city, to be able to come to New York, and a great opportunity and this place gives you energy.”

Along with all the attention came a first prize of $2.5 million.

“I’ll get through it, I’m young enough. It’s been crazy. I had no idea from when I got out of the car on Sunday afternoon what was going to come. It’s been an amazing experience. I’ll remember these days for the rest of my life.”