Olympics
South Sudan almost upstage US in Olympic Games basketball warm-up match
It was unthinkable that a team full of National Basketball Association (NBA) stars could lose to an unheralded African side, but coach Steve Kerr has warned that anything is possible if they do not play at their best.
South Sudan’s basketball team nearly delivered a stunning upset to a United States line-up of big-name players on July 20, before narrowly losing 101-100 in a Paris Olympics warm-up game in London.
LeBron James, 39 and the all-time NBA scoring leader, registered a game-high 25 points for the Americans which included the deciding points on a driving layup with eight seconds remaining at the O2 Arena.
Their East African opponents, who led 58-44 at half-time, took a late lead after an 8-0 scoring run and were poised to pull off one of the greatest shocks in international basketball before the Los Angeles Lakers star saved the day.
“The ending was good for us – just to feel that, to feel what it’s going to feel like in Paris,” Kerr said.
“Good experience for us. Good reminder that when we play against teams like that, it’s the biggest experience of their lives and we have to expect everyone to play like that.
“If we don’t play the right way and don’t come with the right energy and focus, we can be beat, no matter who we play. But we have that gear and if we can find it, we can overwhelm teams. It was a great reminder of two things – that, and if we don’t play our best, we can get beat.”J.T. Thor, who has played for the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets for the past three seasons, sank a three-pointer with 20 seconds remaining to put South Sudan into a 100-99 lead.
After James made the winning shot, the Africans had one final possession but Carlik Jones missed a jumper with six seconds left and Wenyen Gabriel missed on two put-back attempts before the final buzzer.
“South Sudan was amazing,” Kerr added. “I did not do a great job of preparing my team. We did not focus enough on what they are capable of and that’s on me.
“I think that really allowed South Sudan to gain confidence early. Once we turned it up in the second half, they had already knocked down a bunch of threes and were feeling really good about themselves.”
Besides his winning basket, James also sparked a 23-5 US run from late in the third quarter to early in the fourth.
“We have to continue to take a step forward,” said the two-time Olympic champion and four-time NBA champion.
“A lot of these teams that we’re playing have been practising either one month or months in advance and we have maybe just two weeks together. So every game, every film session, we get an opportunity. We have to try to make the most of it, not taking any steps back.”
Cameroon-born Joel Embiid, who became a US citizen in 2022, added 14 points and seven rebounds for the US, while Anthony Davis came off the bench to produce 15 points and 11 rebounds.
“We’re not 100 per cent together, as we saw tonight. But it’s like I said, everything is controllable,” Davis said.
For South Sudan, ranked 33rd in the world, Marial Shayok scored 24 points, Jones added 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists and Thor had 14 points off the bench.
Shayok plays in China and briefly played alongside Embiid with the Philadelphia 76ers while Jones plays for perennial Serbian power Partizan.
The Americans will face South Sudan again in the Olympics group stage on July 31 at Lille.
–AFP
Roy Jones Jr has been handed the Olympic gold medal he was controversially denied in 1988 in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship by the South Korean fighter who beat him.
Hall of Fame boxer Jones shared a video on Wednesday from two years ago that showed Park Si-hun visiting the American’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida to present him with the light middleweight gold medal.
“I had the gold medal, but I want to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said in the video through his son, who translated.
Jones, who was overcome with emotion by the gesture, covered his face with his hand before saying: “Wow, that is crazy.”
Their match at the Seoul Olympics remains one of boxing’s most contentious moments as Jones appeared to dominate the fight but lost to Park by a 3-2 decision that drew instant criticism and sparked enduring controversy.
Despite losing the gold medal match, Jones was selected as the Val Barker Trophy winner as the best boxer of the 1988 Olympics.
Jones went on to become a four-division world champion and is regarded as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
“In 1988, I was robbed of the gold medal in what became one of the biggest controversies in boxing history,” Jones wrote in his Instagram post.
“By the grace of God, a couple of years ago, the man who won that medal made the trip from South Korea to my home to return it to me, feeling it was rightfully mine.
“I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did.”
-Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday creating a White House Olympics task force to handle security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, an administration official told Reuters.
The task force, made up of members from Trump’s cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will “streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media,” the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the World Cup.
“During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule . The city had also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
“The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,” Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
–Reuters
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By DAVID LEE
Home is many places for swimmer Adaku Nwandu, who was born in China, lives in Singapore and wears the Nigeria flag on her swimsuit.
And it is at her current home in Singapore that the 17-year-old is making her debut at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
In the second heat of the 100m freestyle at the WCH Arena, the teenager, who has a Nigerian father and Chinese mother, led at the turn before finishing third in 1min 0.89sec – she eventually placed 59th out of 82 athletes overall.
After her race, Adaku shared with The Straits Times that she was born and raised in Shanghai, and started swimming when she was eight. Interestingly, it was ice cream that kept her in the sport.
Adaku, who still has the 50m freestyle heats on Aug 2, said: “At a school competition, I didn’t do so well and I asked my dad if we could make a deal. He said if I do better, he would buy me ice cream once every week, and that’s a promise we have kept with each other. And that’s what brought me here.”
In 2023, the family moved to Singapore due to her mother’s work posting. With her fluent Mandarin and love for Asian and spicy food, it did not take long for her to pick up Singlish and enjoy local delights like chicken rice and chilli crab.
She said: “We came here mainly because of my mother’s work, and also because the swimming scene back where I lived in China was a little bit toxic, so she also thought Singapore would be a new experience and better for my swimming.”
By then, she had already committed to representing Nigeria after its aquatics association contacted her after the National Sports Festival in Asaba, where the then 16-year-old was part of the national record-breaking women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
But Singapore is where she has been honing her swimming skills, as she has set her 50m and 100m freestyle long- and short-course Nigeria national records at meets here.
Noting her improvements, Singapore swimming coach and performance director Gary Tan said: “Adaku has been participating in our system for a while, and we hope it helps her develop as a swimmer and achieve what she wants while training in Singapore with her school (German European School Singapore).”
For someone who is inspired by Olympic champions David Popovici, Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty for “their dedication and the way they are able to take breaks for themselves to improve and get back to the water”, qualifying for Paris 2024 on ranking points was a dream come true.
Her Olympic debut was also unforgettable as her swimsuit ripped 20 minutes before her 50m freestyle heat, but she managed to finish second in her heat and 33rd out of 78th overall in 26.62 seconds, just 0.03 of a second off her personal best.
Back in Singapore, Adaku, who is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme at her school, realised that she needed more of such resilience to reach her goals.
The swimmer, who also plays for the school’s volleyball team, said: “I had a lot of improvement the first year I came to Singapore. But this past year has been especially hard for me with family problems and also school. The workload in my first year of IB made it hard to balance training and school.
“Especially in the next year, I want to focus more on swimming and try to get some new personal bests because this year I just plateaued. I’m looking forward to training harder and preparing for my next competition and hopefully qualify for the next Olympics.”
-Strait Times, Singapore
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