Police bust doping ring during Skiing World Championships

VIENNA: Austrian police said on Wednesday they had carried out a series of arrests and raids along with police in Germany in a crackdown on an “internationally active doping network”.Some of the police action was centred on the Austrian resort of Seefeld, where the Nordic skiing world championships are currently in progress.Markus Gandler from the Austrian Ski Association told ORF television that two cross-country skiers from the Austrian team, Dominik Baldauf and Max Hauke, were among those who had been arrested.One Kazakh and two Estonian athletes were also held in the raids, Austria’s Federal Criminal Police Office said in a statement. Austrian police say the doping ring was based in Erfurt in Germany and is “strongly suspected of carrying out blood doping of elite athletes in order to improve their performances in national and international competitions and to gain illegal profit from this”. A forty-year-old sports doctor, named as ‘Mark S’, is thought by police to have been a central figure in the doping ring and was arrested along with an alleged accomplice. Nine people were arrested in total and 16 properties searched as part of the crackdown, called “Operation Bloodletting” by police.Cycling ‘doping doctor’ gets reduced sentence on appeal: A former French cycling medical advisor received a 12-month suspended prison sentence on Wednesday for inciting amateur riders to cheat with drugs. Bernard Sainz, alias “Dr Mabuse”, has spent years embroiled in scandals over encouraging doping and illegally practicing medicine.The 75-year-old, who describes himself as an alternative medicine therapist, had initially been sentenced to nine months in jail in September 2017 and was told to pay a 20,000 euro ($22,600) fine. But an appeal verdict, announced on Wednesday, saw the change in sentence and the fine reduced to 2,000 euros. “I was expecting to be let off, plain and simple... I can’t be satisfied considering these are non-existent deeds in a doping affair,” Sainz said after the verdict. “This obstinacy is getting to be very painful, especially when you’re 75,” he added, speaking of the prosecution.At the appeal in December, the prosecution had demanded a heavier sentence against Sainz for engaging in doping between 2008 and 2010, with prosecutor Marc Faury saying that “sport becomes much less so when he (Sainz) is involved”.

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Lahore clinch Inter-Board athletics crown

ISLAMABAD: Lahore Board wins athletics event of the Inter-Board sports gala that concluded at the Pakistan Sports Complex Wednesday. Sahiwal and Gujranwala took second and third positions respectively in the athletics event. Islamabad stood out first in badminton event with Karachi and Mardan board taking second and third positions respectively. Lahore also won hockey crown with Sukkur and Islamabad boards taking second and third position respectively. Tug of war event was won by Karachi Board with Bannu and Gujranwala taking second and third position respectively. Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr Fehmida Mirza was the guest of honour and distributed prizes, medals and trophies amongst the winners.

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Pakistan bag 3 bronze medals in Asian event

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan taekwondo team won three bronze medals at the Asian Club Championship held in Kish (Iran). Mehmood took bronze in 58kg with Shahzeb bringing home third position medal in 54kg category. Mohammad Iqbal also won bronze in 74kg event. Iran will be hosting three back to back international taekwondo events. “These events would help improve the fighting abilities of our taekwondo players,” one of the federation officials when contacted said.

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PSL-4 trophy reaches Karachi

LAHORE: The ongoing fourth Pakistan Super League (PSL) winners’ trophy has reached Karachi, the city of tournament conclusion. The trophy was handed over to PSL courier partners TCS on Tuesday at the Dubai International Stadium. The trophy will be unveiled at National Stadium, Karachi on the eve of the tournament final by the captains of the two finalists, said a spokesman of the PCB here.

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Umar remains impressive in PSL-4

LAHORE: Just halfway through the fourth edition of PSL, a good wealth of fresh talent has emerged in various shapes and departments of the game.One such talent that has emerged is 25-year-old Umar Siddique. The son of former Test Umpire Siddique Khan, Umar is representing Multan Sultans in PSL and has impressed with his batting in the tournament so far. So far, the youngster has scored 119 runs in three innings for Sultans at an average of 39.66, however, he is hungry for more. “I won’t say that I’m satisfied with what I have done at this stage. This is just the beginning I want to continue doing this and finish among top performers of the league,” Umar said. Umar knows, PSL is the best chance for him to show his talent to the world as any performance at this forum can’t go unnoticed.

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Maslak out of European Athletics

PRAGUE: Czech sprinter Pavel Maslak will not defend his European 400m title at next weekend’s Indoor Championships because of an illness, the Czech Athletics Federation said on Wednesday.The 28-year-old, who has won the 400m races at the last three world and Europeanindoor championships, will miss the event in Glasgow on March 1-3 because of a recurring viral disease, a statement said. Maslak has claimed gold medals at the world and continental indoors on six straight occasions between 2013-2018.

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National Polo championship

Master, Diamond Paints/Newage victoriousBy Our correspondentLAHORE: Master Paints Black and Diamond Paints/Newage won the opening matches of the International Steels National Open Polo Championship for Quaid-i-Azam Gold Cup 2019 played here at Lahore Polo Club ground on Wednesday.In the first match of the day, Master Paints Black trounced BBJ Pipes by 10-2. Master Paints Black were off to flying start as they dominated the match right from the word go by scoring a brace through Matias and Raja Temur to take 2-0 lead. Raja Temur and Ahmed Ali then added one goal more in the tally to enhance their lead to 4-0. Master Paints Black continued their dominance in the third chukker as well as they hammered a hat-trick - two by Matias and one by Ahmed Ali - to enhance their lead to 7-0.The fourth chukker saw both the teams scoring one goal each to make it 8-1. Ahmed Ali converted one for Master Paints Black and Mumtaz Abbas one for BBJ Pipes.In the fifth and last chukker, Master Paints Black added two more goals through Matias in their tally to stretch their lead 10-1 while Nicolas converted one for BBJ Pipes to finish the match at 10-2. Nicolas Scortichini and Martin Fewster supervised the match as field umpires while Shah Qublai Alam was match referee. In the second match of the day, Diamond Paints/Newage came from behind to win the match by a close margin of 8-7 against Barry’s.Salvador Ulloa and Hissam Ali Hyder emerged as joint heroes for Diamond Paints/Newage as they fired in fantastic four goals each to guide their team to victory while from the losing side, Bautista Bayuger hammered double hat-trick and Raja Samiullah contributed one but their efforts were futile in the end when their side lost the match by just one-goal margin of 7-8. Barry’s scored the opening goal of the match through Bautista to take 1-0 lead. But Diamond Paints/Newage fought back well and banged in a brace through Salvador to get back 2-1 lead. The second chukker was dominated fully by Diamond Paints/Newage as they hammered a hat-trick to stretch their lead to 5-1. Hissam converted two goals and Salvador one for the winning side. The only of the thrid chukker came from Barry’s when Bautista fired in a field goal to reduce the margin to 5-2. In the fourth chukker, Barry’s came from behind to score fabulous four goals to pull back 6-5 lead. Bautista hammered a hat-trick and Raja Sami struck one. In the fifth and last chukker, Barry’s added one more in their tally to enhance their lead to 7-5. Diamond Paints/Newage then bounced back in style and hammered a hat-trick to win the match by 8-7. Hissam Hyder struck two and Salvador one goal. Nicolas Scortichini and Martin Fewster were field umpires and Shah Qublai Alam match referee.

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