IN BRIEF

Jaguar drops Rice over homophobic remarks

AUSTRALIA'S triple Olympic gold medallist Stephanie Rice was stripped of her sponsorship deal with luxury carmaker Jaguar yesterday after she posted a homophobic remark on Twitter. The swimmer landed herself in controversy after tweeting "Suck on that faggots!" in triumph at Australia's narrow win over South Africa in the Tri-Nations rugby on Saturday.

LHC postpones spot-fixing hearing

THE Lahore High Court yesterday heard a petition seeking treason charges be filed against cricket players and officials involved in the spot-fixing scandal in England. However, LHC judge Khawaja Sharif adjourned the hearing to Sept. 22 as neither the chairman of the board, Ijaz Butt, nor the seven players summoned were present as they are in England.

Pakistan players aware of 'fix' dangers

PAKISTAN one-day captain Shahid Afridi insisted on Monday that his players had been educated by officials over the dangers of corruption as the 'spot-fixing' row engulfing his side rumbled on. Afrid said: "The people are coming from the ICC (International Cricket Council) and they are always talking about these things. I think we all know about these things so I think the people from the ICC are doing their work."

Kobayashi to stay with Sauber F1 team in 2011

JAPAN'S Kamui Kobayashi will stay with Sauber next season but his team mate remains undecided, the Swiss-based Formula One team said yesterday. The rookie, who turns 24 next Monday after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, has scored most of Sauber's points this season with a best result of sixth place at the British Grand Prix. Sauber said an announcement about the team's second driver would be made later in the year.

Winter Olympics: one in 10 athletes injured

AT LEAST 10 percent of athletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics sustained an injury and another seven percent fell ill, researchers reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine yesterday. The data come from the head doctors of 82 National Olympic Committees who monitored athletes' health during the February 12-28 Vancouver Games, and from "Olympic clinics" at Vancouver and Whistler. In all, 287 injuries were reported among the 2,567 athletes who were covered in the study, and 185 illnesses were recorded.

Agencies