TRIATHLON
Organizers of the Ironman 70.3 Maine triathlon in Old Orchard Beach announced in a press release Friday that this year’s event, scheduled for Aug. 30, has been canceled because of Maine’s coronavirus restrictions.
The statement did not indicate if registered participants will get a refund or a deferred entry into next year’s race, which is to held on Aug. 29. Entrants will receive an email with more details.
AUTO RACING
INDY CAR: The Indianapolis 500 will run in August with 50% fan capacity, a total that could still hit six figures at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Indy 500 was bumped from its traditional May date because of the coronavirus pandemic. The 104th Indy 500 will run Aug. 23 at half the total of what is traditionally one of the biggest sporting events of the year. The event does not release official attendance figures, but it is estimated that past crowds have been between 300,000 and 400,000.
“We’re committed to running the Indy 500 on Sunday, Aug. 23 and will welcome fans to the world’s greatest racing venue,” IMS President J. Douglas Boles said. “We will be limiting attendance to approximately 50%, and we are also finalizing a number of additional carefully considered health and safety measures.”
The IMS team is working with public health officials to complete a comprehensive plan of health measures.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway will still host an IndyCar-NASCAR doubleheader on the July 4 weekend without fans.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: The Los Angeles Sparks will be without Chiney Ogwumike and Kristi Toliver for the WNBA season so they can focus on their health, the team announced.
Ogwumike has missed two seasons to deal with injuries, and with the shortened schedule felt that it would be smart to take care of her health. She missed the 2015 because of a knee injury and 2017 because of an Achilles tendon injury. Both were suffered while she played overseas.
Toliver, who signed with the team in the offseason as a free agent, said she will use the time to get mentally and physically healthy for the 2021 season and “find new ways to make a positive impact in my community,”
The WNBA is set to begin play next month in Florida at the IMG Academy after postponing the original start date of May 15 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
COLLEGES
FOOTBALL: Clemson said 14 more football players tested positive for the coronavirus this week, bringing the team total to 37 members who have tested positive since the school reopened facilities for workouts earlier this month.
Clemson said it has conducted 430 tests of its personnel, with 47 coming up with COVID-19 – 43 athletes and four staff members. No one has been hospitalized for the virus, athletic spokesman Jeff Kallin said.
SOCCER
ITALY: Cristiano Ronaldo set up two goals and converted a penalty to help Juventus beat 10-man Lecce 4-0 and boost its chances of claiming a record-extending ninth successive Serie A title.
Ronaldo had struggled since soccer resumed in Italy, but his return to form pushed Juventus seven points clear of second-placed Lazio, which hosts Fiorentina on Saturday.
INVESTIGATION: French soccer great Michel Platini has been formally placed under investigation in Switzerland in relation to a $2 million payment he got from FIFA in 2011.
Swiss federal prosecutors this month extended their open criminal proceedings into then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s role in the payment to include Platini, according to a document seen Friday by The Associated Press.
Platini, who was the president of European soccer body UEFA at the time, is suspected of being an accomplice to criminal mismanagement, misappropriation and forgery, the document states.
The former France national team captain submitted invoices to FIFA in January 2011 seeking payment for an uncontracted salary when working as a presidential adviser in Blatter’s first term, from 1998-2002. He was paid the next month.
Five different courts and tribunals – including the FIFA ethics committee, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the European Court of Human Rights – have ruled against Platini since Swiss prosecutors revealed the allegation in September 2015.
Platini and Blatter, who were both banned by FIFA, deny wrongdoing and have not been charged by Swiss prosecutors. Platini’s four-year ban expired in October and he has been planning to return to the sport.
TENNIS
DAVIS CUP: The Davis Cup men’s tennis competition has been canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic and will pick up again in 2021.
Matches were scheduled for this September and the Davis Cup finals were set for November in Madrid.
Now the World Group I and World Group II preliminary matches will be played in various sites in either March or September 2021. The finals will be in Madrid during the week of Nov. 22, 2021.
The International Tennis Federation says the 18 nations that already qualified for the 2020 finals will get a spot in 2021.
The ITF has also scrapped the women’s Fed Cup finals for this year and says they will be played April 13-18 in Budapest, Hungary.
The Fed Cup originally was supposed to be played this April but was initially postponed because of the pandemic.
TRACK AND FIELD
DIAMOND GAMES: Diamond League track meets in France and the United States have been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Organizers say the Sept. 6 event in Paris and the Prefontaine meet on Oct. 4 in Eugene, Oregon, cannot be held because of the current restrictions on mass gatherings and international travel.
A meet in Gateshead, England, has been postponed from Aug. 16 to a possible date in mid-September.
The next possible Diamond League meet is scheduled for Aug. 14 in Monaco.
BOXING
DURAN POSITIVE FOR COVID-19: Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán, who held world championships in four weight classes during his more than three-decade career, has tested positive for the coronavirus but has had only mild symptoms so far, one of his sons said Thursday.
Robin Durán said his 69-year-old father was tested after going to a private hospital with cold symptoms.
“At the moment he’s not having symptoms beyond a cold. We’ll be passing on more information over the days,” the son wrote on his Instagram account.
He said he decided to take his father to a hospital as a precaution, because one of his lungs hasn’t functioned at full capacity since a car crash in Argentina in 2001, an accident that led the boxer to retire.
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