C8 SPORT THESTRAITSTIMES FRIDAY,MAY24,2019 TEAM IN …
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LOS ANGELES • Olympic track and field star Allyson Felix joined a cho- rus of recent criticism against Nike on Wednesday, accusing the Ameri- can sporting goods giant of penalis- ing female athletes who give birth. The only female track and field athlete to win six Olympic gold medals wrote in the New York Times that she had been offered a vastly reduced contract after reduc- ing her schedule last year ahead of the birth of her daughter, Camryn, last December. The 2012 Olympic 200m cham- pion spoke out after fellow Ameri- cans Alysia Montano and Kara Goucher levelled similar allega- tions as part of an investigation by The Times last week. Her column read: “They told sto- ries we athletes know are true, but have been too scared to tell pub- licly: If we have children, we risk pay cuts from our sponsors during pregnancy and afterwards. “It’s one example of a sports in- dustry where the rules are still mostly made for and by men.” The 33-year-old revealed she had decided to start a family last year despite anxiety over talks concern- ing the renewal of her sponsorship deal which had expired at the end of 2017, with Nike offering her 70 per cent less than before. While Felix claimed she accepted the new normal “if that’s what they think I’m worth now”, it baulked at guarantees that she would not be penalised if she performed below her best “in the months surround- ing childbirth”. She added: “I wanted to set a new standard. If I, one of Nike’s most widely marketed athletes, couldn’t secure these protections, who could? Nike declined. We’ve been at a standstill since.” Felix, who has vowed to try and race in the Tokyo 2020 in what would be her fifth Olympics, said the experience has cast light on how the sports apparel industry treats female athletes. “This isn’t just about pregnancy,” she wrote. “We may stand behind the brands we endorse, but we also need to hold them accountable when they are marketing us to ap- peal to the next generation of ath- letes and consumers.” Nike last week responded to the criticism by vowing to implement a new policy which standardised the treatment of female athletes dur- ing pregnancy while recognising that it “can go even further”. Praising Nike “for seeing that change was necessary”, Felix said: “Pregnancy is not messing up. For women, it can and should be able to be part of a thriving professional athletic career, as my teammates have shown and I hope to show, too. I dream of a day when we don’t have to fight in order to try.” AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Nicole Chia Gune Atharva Rahul’s name may have been spelt wrongly on the back of his jersey, but he did every- thing right in the Schools National A Division cricket final yesterday. The 16-year-old Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student took three wickets in one over during the final moments to hold off a comeback from champions Raffles Institution at Ceylon Sports Club. ACS(I), who won the toss and elected to bat, scored 140-5 in 20 overs before restricting RI to 130-9. Atharva, described by some fans as the “man of the match”, said: “It’s a very proud moment to be able to get my best performance out of my- self on this stage, at this final. “I was still looking for the fourth (wicket) and also trying to keep it simple. I just took it ball by ball. “I wouldn’t say (I was nervous), I made a plan for the main batsmen who were scoring against us. Be- fore every ball, I just think about what I’m going to bowl and tell my- self that I’m going to stick to that.” ACS(I) captain Ishaan Paul Sawney described Atharva as one of the team’s best bowlers and hailed his “fantastic effort”. Ishaan, 17, added: “Raffles put up a really good fight and it got really close, but the boys really pulled through. Before the game, I told them not to worry about the result and to just focus on giving every- thing and leaving no regrets.” ACS(I) had twice lost to RI during the preliminary phase, but he did not feel that affected their morale for the final. “They are a good side, but we also just kept faith in ourselves,” added the Year Six student. “We know we’re a good team and, on our day, we’re good enough to beat them, so we just kept a positive mindset.” A disappointed RI captain Hriday Mistry said: “We beat this team by (big margins) twice, so to lose to them narrowly hurts because we should have got the job done. “We dropped a couple of catches. It was our game to win, but we made crucial mistakes and let the game slip out of our hands. Those mistakes cost us today.” [email protected] Felix blasts Nike for new mums’ smaller contracts After two losses, ACS(I) beat RI in final ACS(I) batsman Sai Harsha playing a shot in the A Division final yesterday at Ceylon Sports Club. The team won by 10 runs. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG Tampines Meridian Junior College captain Tiong Chuan Yao attacking the rim despite being guarded closely by Anderson Serangoon Junior College’s Louis Ho (right) and Keith Tan during their A Division final at the Jurong East Sports Hall yesterday. TMJC led from start to finish to win 62-46. ST PHOTO: JASMINE CHOONG David Lee Their names may be different now, but Tampines Meridian Junior Col- lege (TMJC) still went into the Schools National A Division boys’ basketball final with a point to prove against Anderson Serangoon Junior College (ASRJC) yesterday. Before the schools’ merger this year, Anderson beat Meridian in the semi-finals last year en route to retaining their title. But TMJC came out firing on all cylinders at the Jurong East Sports Hall. They were 21-6 up after the first quarter and built on it to land their first A Division boys basket- ball title with a 62-46 win. TMJC basketball teacher-in- charge Allen Lee said: “It has al- ways been our game plan to come out aggressive from the start, and the big lead helped us tide over some scoring droughts. “The extra training the team put in to get things right in pre-season really paid off. On top of the three sessions, they did more strength and conditioning on their own.” ASRJC, trailing 32-8 midway through the second period, woke up to make it a good fight in the sec- ond half by going on 14-0 and 10-0 runs. But, each time there was a whiff of a comeback, TMJC snuffed it out with crucial baskets to main- tain their double-digit lead. TMJC power forward Dorian Chin, who was named the most valu- able player, was a force beneath the rim. He contributed a game-high 15 points alongside Darryl Chan, who netted a hat-trick of three-pointers. TMJC captain Tiong Chuan Yao said: “It means a lot to create his- tory with this team. It feels great and it is a real blessing. “Credit has to go to our coaches and teachers, who helped us build a strong mindset. We were a little ner- vous when they started to catch up, but it wasn’t the first time we were in such a position, so we knew how to stay calm to close out the game.” In the A Division girls’ final, Raf- fles Institution (RI) eased past Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) 52-33 to re- claim the title they won in 2017. They lost to HCI by 13 points in the quarter-final round-robin stage but, this time, their rivals had no an- swer to their 2-3 zone defence and resorted to long-range jumpers that often missed the mark. RI coach Chiew Poh Leng said: “We did not have a good plan and strategy when we last met. We made some changes and were more mentally prepared today and showed no nerves.” RI were able to penetrate the paint more efficiently, with Tan Kang Yi plundering 25 points. The captain and centre, named the girls’ MVP, added: “This feels very surreal because of how the team have journeyed through set- backs this season. “We lost three times in the quar- ter-finals and barely made it to the semi-finals as the fourth seeds. “We lost to Dunman High last year, so to win this time feels amaz- ing.” [email protected] School sports TEAM IN NEW FORM EARN 1ST TITLE Newly merged TMJC use fiery start in A Div final to beat ASRJC; RI clinch girls’ title Singapore beat Vietnam for Sudirman 17th spot Singapore thrashed Vietnam 3-0 yesterday to end 17th, their worst finish in 18 years, in badminton’s mixed-team Sudirman Cup in Nanning, China. Loh Kean Hean and Toh Han Zhuo won the men’s doubles in straight games before rubber-game singles victories by Yeo Jia Min and Loh Kean Yew clinched the tie. Keita may be fit for Champions League final LONDON • Liverpool’s Naby Keita is recovering faster than expected from a thigh injury and will be given every chance to prove his fitness ahead of the Champions League final against Tottenham on June 1, manager Jurgen Klopp said. The Guinea midfielder was initially ruled out for the season after he picked up the problem in their 3-0 semi-final first-leg defeat by Barcelona. However, Klopp revealed he was “a bit ahead of schedule” at Liverpool’s training camp in Marbella, Spain, with the German also confirming Brazil forward Roberto Firmino was on the verge of returning to full training. REUTERS McGregor says war with Khabib ‘not over’ NEW YORK • Conor McGregor has gone from strongly hinting that his retirement will not last to calling for a “rematch” with Khabib Nurmagomedov. In an interview with motivational speaker Tony Robbins, he also issued a challenge to the Russian that “this war is not over”. Undefeated Nurmagomedov (27-0) retained his Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight belt against the Irishman (21-4) last October. WASHINGTON POST SportsWorld For admission to the Club on racedays, you must be at least 18 years of age. C8 SPORT ● | THE STRAITS TIMES | FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2019 |
Transcript of C8 SPORT THESTRAITSTIMES FRIDAY,MAY24,2019 TEAM IN …
LOS ANGELES • Olympic track and field star Allyson Felix joined a cho-rus of recent criticism against Nike on Wednesday, accusing the Ameri-can sporting goods giant of penalis-ing female athletes who give birth.
The only female track and field
athlete to win six Olympic gold medals wrote in the New York Times that she had been offered a vastly reduced contract after reduc-ing her schedule last year ahead of the birth of her daughter, Camryn, last December.
The 2012 Olympic 200m cham-pion spoke out after fellow Ameri-cans Alysia Montano and Kara Goucher levelled similar allega-tions as part of an investigation by The Times last week.
Her column read: “They told sto-ries we athletes know are true, but have been too scared to tell pub-licly: If we have children, we risk pay cuts from our sponsors during pregnancy and afterwards.
“It’s one example of a sports in-dustry where the rules are still mostly made for and by men.”
The 33-year-old revealed she had decided to start a family last year despite anxiety over talks concern-ing the renewal of her sponsorship deal which had expired at the end of 2017, with Nike offering her 70 per cent less than before.
While Felix claimed she accepted the new normal “if that’s what they think I’m worth now”, it baulked at guarantees that she would not be penalised if she performed below her best “in the months surround-ing childbirth”.
She added: “I wanted to set a new standard. If I, one of Nike’s most widely marketed athletes, couldn’t
secure these protections, who could? Nike declined. We’ve been at a standstill since.”
Felix, who has vowed to try and race in the Tokyo 2020 in what would be her fifth Olympics, said the experience has cast light on how the sports apparel industry treats female athletes.
“This isn’t just about pregnancy,” she wrote. “We may stand behind the brands we endorse, but we also need to hold them accountable when they are marketing us to ap-peal to the next generation of ath-letes and consumers.”
Nike last week responded to the criticism by vowing to implement a new policy which standardised the treatment of female athletes dur-ing pregnancy while recognising that it “can go even further”.
Praising Nike “for seeing that change was necessary”, Felix said: “Pregnancy is not messing up. For women, it can and should be able to be part of a thriving professional athletic career, as my teammates have shown and I hope to show, too. I dream of a day when we don’t have to fight in order to try.” AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Nicole Chia
Gune Atharva Rahul’s name may have been spelt wrongly on the back of his jersey, but he did every-thing right in the Schools National A Division cricket final yesterday.
The 16-year-old Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student took three wickets in one over during the final moments to hold off a comeback from champions Raffles Institution at Ceylon Sports Club.
ACS(I), who won the toss and elected to bat, scored 140-5 in 20
overs before restricting RI to 130-9.Atharva, described by some fans
as the “man of the match”, said: “It’s a very proud moment to be able to get my best performance out of my-self on this stage, at this final.
“I was still looking for the fourth (wicket) and also trying to keep it simple. I just took it ball by ball.
“I wouldn’t say (I was nervous), I made a plan for the main batsmen who were scoring against us. Be-fore every ball, I just think about what I’m going to bowl and tell my-self that I’m going to stick to that.”
ACS(I) captain Ishaan Paul
Sawney described Atharva as one of the team’s best bowlers and hailed his “fantastic effort”.
Ishaan, 17, added: “Raffles put up a really good fight and it got really close, but the boys really pulled through. Before the game, I told them not to worry about the result and to just focus on giving every-thing and leaving no regrets.”
ACS(I) had twice lost to RI during the preliminary phase, but he did not feel that affected their morale for the final.
“They are a good side, but we also just kept faith in ourselves,” added
the Year Six student. “We know we’re a good team and, on our day, we’re good enough to beat them, so we just kept a positive mindset.”
A disappointed RI captain Hriday Mistry said: “We beat this team by (big margins) twice, so to lose to them narrowly hurts because we should have got the job done.
“We dropped a couple of catches. It was our game to win, but we made crucial mistakes and let the game slip out of our hands. Those mistakes cost us today.”
Felix blasts Nike for new mums’ smaller contracts
After two losses, ACS(I) beat RI in final
ACS(I) batsman Sai Harsha playing a shot in the A Division final yesterday at Ceylon Sports Club. The team won by 10 runs. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
Tampines Meridian Junior College captain Tiong Chuan Yao attacking the rim despite being guarded closely by Anderson Serangoon Junior College’s Louis Ho (right) and Keith Tan during their A Division final at the Jurong East Sports Hall yesterday. TMJC led from start to finish to win 62-46. ST PHOTO: JASMINE CHOONG
David Lee
Their names may be different now, but Tampines Meridian Junior Col-lege (TMJC) still went into the Schools National A Division boys’ basketball final with a point to prove against Anderson Serangoon Junior College (ASRJC) yesterday.
Before the schools’ merger this year, Anderson beat Meridian in the semi-finals last year en route to retaining their title.
But TMJC came out firing on all cylinders at the Jurong East Sports Hall. They were 21-6 up after the first quarter and built on it to land their first A Division boys basket-ball title with a 62-46 win.
TMJC basketball teacher-in-charge Allen Lee said: “It has al-ways been our game plan to come out aggressive from the start, and the big lead helped us tide over some scoring droughts.
“The extra training the team put in to get things right in pre-season really paid off. On top of the three sessions, they did more strength and conditioning on their own.”
ASRJC, trailing 32-8 midway through the second period, woke up to make it a good fight in the sec-ond half by going on 14-0 and 10-0 runs. But, each time there was a whiff of a comeback, TMJC snuffed it out with crucial baskets to main-tain their double-digit lead.
TMJC power forward Dorian Chin, who was named the most valu-able player, was a force beneath the rim. He contributed a game-high 15 points alongside Darryl Chan, who netted a hat-trick of three-pointers.
TMJC captain Tiong Chuan Yao said: “It means a lot to create his-tory with this team. It feels great and it is a real blessing.
“Credit has to go to our coaches and teachers, who helped us build a strong mindset. We were a little ner-vous when they started to catch up, but it wasn’t the first time we were in such a position, so we knew how to stay calm to close out the game.”
In the A Division girls’ final, Raf-fles Institution (RI) eased past Hwa
Chong Institution (HCI) 52-33 to re-claim the title they won in 2017.
They lost to HCI by 13 points in the quarter-final round-robin stage but, this time, their rivals had no an-swer to their 2-3 zone defence and
resorted to long-range jumpers that often missed the mark.
RI coach Chiew Poh Leng said: “We did not have a good plan and strategy when we last met. We made some changes and were more
mentally prepared today and showed no nerves.”
RI were able to penetrate the paint more efficiently, with Tan Kang Yi plundering 25 points.
The captain and centre, named
the girls’ MVP, added: “This feels very surreal because of how the team have journeyed through set-backs this season.
“We lost three times in the quar-ter-finals and barely made it to the
semi-finals as the fourth seeds. “We lost to Dunman High last
year, so to win this time feels amaz-ing.”
School sports
TEAM IN NEW FORM EARN 1ST TITLENewly merged TMJC use fiery start in A Div final to beat ASRJC; RI clinch girls’ title
Singapore beat Vietnam for Sudirman 17th spotSingapore thrashed Vietnam 3-0 yesterday to end 17th, their worst finish in 18 years, in badminton’s mixed-team Sudirman Cup in Nanning, China.
Loh Kean Hean and Toh Han Zhuo won the men’s doubles in straight games before rubber-game singles victories by Yeo Jia Min and Loh Kean Yew clinched the tie.
Keita may be fit for Champions League finalLONDON • Liverpool’s Naby Keita is recovering faster than expected from a thigh injury and will be given every chance to prove his fitness ahead of the Champions League final against Tottenham on June 1, manager Jurgen Klopp said.
The Guinea midfielder was initially ruled out for the season after he picked up the problem
in their 3-0 semi-final first-leg defeat by Barcelona.
However, Klopp revealed he was “a bit ahead of schedule” at Liverpool’s training camp in Marbella, Spain, with the German also confirming Brazil forward Roberto Firmino was on the verge of returning to full training. REUTERS
McGregor says war with Khabib ‘not over’NEW YORK • Conor McGregor has gone from strongly hinting that his retirement will not last to calling for a “rematch” with Khabib Nurmagomedov.
In an interview with motivational speaker Tony Robbins, he also issued a challenge to the Russian that “this war is not over”.
Undefeated Nurmagomedov (27-0) retained his Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight belt against the Irishman (21-4) last October. WASHINGTON POST
SportsWorld
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C8 SPORT ● | THE STRAITS TIMES | FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2019 |
