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Thursday August 2, 2018

THE chairman of Colombia’s soccer federation and other cur-rent and former executives are under investigation for alleged embezzlement and resale of tickets for the 2018 World Cup, South American qualifying matches.

The investigation is target-ing current chairman Ramon Jesurun, his predecessor Luis Bedoya, executive Alvaro Gon-zalez Alzate and former league chairman Jorge Perdomo, among others.

Colombian trade authorities said Monday the probe con-cerned eight of the nine home matches played by the national team. They believe 42,221 tick-ets were allegedly embezzled and resold, some at 350 percent over face value.

Proceeds from the criminal operation are estimated at US$4.5 million.

Jesurun was vice president of South America’s soccer orga-nization Conmebol before he joined different committees at FIFA in 2017.

Bedoya is in the United States as a protected witness after a Conmebol bribing scandal.

If the parties involved are found guilty, Colombian trade authorities could impose big fi nes.

Colombia’s soccer federation said in a statement that the orga-nization and its staff “will show their correctness, as they are the main victims and whistleblowers of such activities.”

Authorities are also investigat-ing Rodrigo Rendon Cano, the owner of the Real Cartagena club; his son Rodrigo Rendon Ruiz, plus ticket selling com-panies Ticketshop and Tu TicketYa.com.

Investigators say Rendon Cano allegedly received privi-leged information through the federation to lure partners and receive exclusive access to the tickets.

“The massive embezzle-ment of tickets and its resale were only possible because of actions attributed to the federa-tion,” trade investigator Felipe Robledo said in a press confer-ence. “There were deliberate actions and deliberate omis-sions of the federation and its executives.”

The investigations began in October 2017 when Colombia faced Paraguay in Barranquilla.

(SD-Agencies)

IT’S not very often that Michael Phelps gets knocked off the record board. But a 10-year-old swimming phenom with a super-hero name has done just that.

His name is Clark Kent Apuada. And of course, they call him “Superman.”

Over the weekend, Clark, who swims for the Monterey County Aquatic Team, competed at the Far West International Cham-pionship in California, where he

won the 100-meter butterfl y in 1:09:38.

That’s more than a second better than the 100-meter but-terfl y record that Phelps set at the championship in 1995.

It had gone unbroken, while Phelps went on to win 28 Olym-pic medals.

Even more impressive, Clark has only been swimming com-petitively for four years.

“This kid is unlike any other

young man that I’ve ever coached,” Clark’s coach Dia Riana told CNN. “He’s always stood out, he’s just, he’s kind of a savant of sorts.”

Clark’s supernatural abilities aren’t confi ned to the pool.

“He does piano lessons, he does martial arts, and at school if there’s a computer class, coding, or STEM programs he’s always joining,” his father, Chris Apuada, said. (SD-Agencies)

SERENA WILLIAMS walked off the court offering waves to a supportive Bay Area crowd that certainly didn’t expect to see the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s early exit.

In the most lopsided defeat of her career, Williams’ disappoint-ing night ended in less than an hour as she lost her opening match of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic on Tuesday night to Johanna Konta, 6-1, 6-0.

When the 52-minute match ended on Williams’ forehand into the net, she quickly grabbed her gear and headed off the court. It was the fi rst time she won only one game — she won her serve

for the initial game Tuesday. She got two games at the 2014 WTA fi nals in Singapore, falling 6-0, 6-2 to Simona Halep.

“I know I can play a zillion times better so that kind of helps out, too. I have so many things on my mind I don’t have time to be shocked about a loss that clearly wasn’t at my best right now,” Williams said. “When I was out there, was fi ghting. That’s the only thing I can say, I wasn’t just like giving it away and I was moving a lot better.”

While Williams was encour-aged by her court coverage, she hardly looked like herself on a cool summer evening. She

double-faulted and landed drop shots in the net. Williams missed returns and sprayed her ground-strokes long and wide.

Konta, who captured her fi rst WTA title two years ago at Stan-ford, got on a roll with a quick fi rst set and didn’t take a chance of letting Williams get back in it. Konta closed the fi rst game of the second with consecutive aces under 160 kilometers per hour.

“I think she played well in the second set,” Williams said. “I wasn’t sharp at all in the fi rst set and I think she got confi dent and clearly ran away with it.”

(SD-Agencies)

VERY little has gone right for Manchester United players on this tour of the United States, but they should just be grateful for whoever approved Alexis Sanchez’s travel visa.

The Chile star missed the fi rst week of the trip over the hold-up and trained alone in Carrington. Since joining his teammates in America, however, he has led the attack almost single-hand-edly at times.

At Hard Rock Stadium, Sanchez scored one and set up another as Jose Mourinho’s side ended the trip on a high note, beating the European champion Real Madrid 2-1.

Mourinho and his depleted squad fl ew home straight after the match following an arduous three weeks, and have a win over Madrid to add to a shoot-out victory over AC Milan.

A heavy 4-1 defeat by Liver-pool is best forgotten, as are the draws against Club America and San Jose Earthquakes, but at least it isn’t all doom and gloom despite the manager’s downcast mood.

Mourinho’s extraordinary outburst about the state of the tour and the squad available to him had overshadowed United’s defeat by Liverpool in Michigan and the buildup to this one as well.

The United manager could at least welcome back David De Gea, a goalkeeper so often linked with Real Madrid, and give his new 52-million-pound (US$68 million) signing Fred a 67-minute run-out on his fi rst start.

Sanchez scores in United win over Madrid

But with Chris Smalling unable to play after going off in the warmup Saturday, Mourinho had no choice but to play Scott McTominay in a back-three alongside Eric Bailly and Timothy Fosu-Mensah.

Having said that Bailly “isn’t a leader” over the weekend, it was surprising to see the defender given the captain’s armband.

Brazilian midfi elder Fred started for Manchester United for the fi rst time following his summer move from Shakhtar.

This was Madrid’s fi rst game of pre-season, and its fi rst since Cristiano Ronaldo left

the Bernabeu after nine years for Juventus.

Ronaldo’s exit has given Gareth Bale a new lease on life in Spain, but the Welshman and Karim Benzema were the only players from the Euro-pean Cup winning squad that started here.

United took full advantage by surging into a two-goal lead inside the opening 27 minutes. The fi rst came from a sweeping move down the right as Ander Herrera fed Matteo Darmian and he crossed low for Sanchez to score with a clinical fi rst-time fi nish. The irony will not be lost on Mourinho that Darmian has

been one of the better players on this tour just as he is about to return to Italy.

It meant that Sanchez had scored two of United’s fi rst four goals in the United States, and he played a signifi cant part in the fi fth as well.

Juan Mata made a break down the right but found him-self with little support.

Sanchez provided it and Mata clipped a cross into the former Arsenal man who cleverly nodded it back to the penalty spot. Herrera was following up and rifl ed the ball past goal-keeper Francisco Casilla.

(SD-Agencies)

Ramon Jesurun

Colombian soccer chiefs probedfor allegedticket resales

Young swimmer breaks Michael Phelps’ record

Clark Kent Apuada

Serena Williams loses in most lopsided defeat of career

Manchester United forward Alexis Sanchez (L) controls the ball against Real Madrid during their match at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, the United States, on Tuesday. SD-Agencies

Serena Williams of the United States reacts during her match against Johanna Konta of Great Britain in San Jose, Cali-fornia, the United States, on Tuesday. SD-Agencies