WeeklySA_AdminON YOUR MARKS
Sex is back on at the Olympics as thousands of wannabe lovers turn to dating apps in the City of Love ahead of the Paris 2024 Games. Luckily for them, the intimacy ban for athletes – which was in place during the Covid-19 pandemic at Tokyo 2020 – was lifted by the International Olympic Committee.
The surge in the St Denis area of the city has seen hundreds of new users log in to seek out some romantic encounters. Some 300,000 condoms have been laid out at various points around the complex The free condoms will come in the blue, red, green and purple colours of the Paris 2024 Games. And insiders believe that despite Paris bosses installing ‘anti bonk’ beds made from cardboard, this year’s Games are set to be the sexiest ever.
SHOW GOES ON
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach says he has “full confidence” in the French authorities after arson attacks on the train network delayed thousands of travellers just hours before the Games’ opening ceremony. A series of fires has badly affected several high-speed rail lines within Paris, with around 800,000 people expected to be affected. Rail company SNCF described it as a “massive attack aimed at paralysing the network”. The Eurostar has also advised passengers not to travel and cancelled some services.
SEVENS UP
The South African sevens team has promised to leave nothing in the tank when they face France in the semi-finals of the Olympic Games in Paris on Saturday. Interim head coach Philip Snyman says the Blitzboks know what is needed at Stade de France – nothing less than what the Springboks delivered 10 months ago when they outplayed France at the same venue in their Rugby World Cup quarter-final thriller. During that clash, three former Blitzbok Olympians made a significant contribution to the Boks’ one-point victory. Cheslin Kolbe, Kwagga Smith and Kurt-Lee Arendse all made telling interventions and that will inspire the Blitzboks to follow suit, Snyman said. “We all saw that game and how guts and determination brought the win,” said Snyman. “We are going to need that as well, apart from being clinical, especially on defence.
WADA CHINESE SWIMMERS
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has asked an independent prosecutor to review its handling of a case where 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for a prescription heart drug. The organisation will also send a “compliance audit team” to China to “assess the current state of the country’s anti-doping program” run by anti-doping body CHINADA. WADA has faced criticism since media reports revealed that the swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) – which can enhance performance – ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but were not sanctioned after WADA accepted the argument of Chinese authorities that the case was caused by food contamination. WADA said in a statement that it had asked former Swiss public prosecutor Eric Cottier to review its handling of the case.
MAX 10
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri showed the pace of the McLaren by securing a one-two in second practice at the Belgian Grand Prix – with Max Verstappen set for a 10-place grid drop for Sunday’s race. A week on from the intra-team row in Hungary, Norris was the quicker of the two drivers by 0.215 seconds, with reigning world champion Verstappen in third place – all on the soft C4 tyre. Red Bull’s Verstappen has taken his fifth internal combustion engine (ICE) at Spa-Francorchamps – exceeding his allocated number of power units for the season. The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were fourth and fifth respectively, but the gap to Norris was more than half a second for Leclerc and 0.838secs for Sainz.
CUP DROUGHT OVER
In his first official press conference in South Africa, Kaizer Chiefs’ newly-appointed coach Nasreddine Nabi says it’s unacceptable that the club has gone nine years without lifting a trophy. Chiefs last won some silverware in the 2014/2015 season, when then-coach Stuart Baxter led the club to a league and MTN8 double. Speaking through a translator, the Tunisian-Belgian coach, who has joined Chiefs on a three-year deal, says Amakhosi shouldn’t be going through the trophy drought they are in, given their status in Southern African football. “Looking at the name Kaizer Chiefs and how big the club is in South Africa, it’s most definitely unacceptable for a club not to have a title in nine years,” said Nabi, through a French translator.
