SOCCER

Six Under-19 players banned over night out

Six players from China's Under-19 men's national team have been suspended for six months for violating epidemic-control regulations, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) announced on Saturday.

The CFA said Tao Qianglong, Liu Zhurun, Peng Hao, Ren Lihao, Han Dong and He Longhai left the team's training base without permission and went out drinking on May 30.

They were part of 35-strong squad selected for May 17-June 6 training camp in Shanghai.

"It was a severe violation of the team's epidemic-control regulations, and negatively affected the whole team," read a CFA statement.

The CFA added that the players have been banned from participating in any CFA-organized matches from June 1 to Nov 30 this year and will not be allowed to join China's national teams at any level during that period.

Suarez fit for Barca's La Liga resumption

Barcelona striker Luis Suarez has been cleared to play when Spain's La Liga restarts.

The Uruguayan has recovered from January surgery on his right knee, with the 33-year-old available for Barca's first match back following La Liga's three-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, against Real Mallorca on Saturday.

Lionel Messi returned to Camp Nou on Saturday after missing two group training sessions with a slight leg injury. Messi trained alone indoors on Wednesday and Friday, but worked on the sidelines of a group session, according to reports.

Barcelona leads La Liga by two points from Real Madrid with 11 rounds of matches to play.

TRACK AND FIELD

Naser suspended for anti-doping violations

Bahrain's 400-meter world champion Salwa Eid Naser was charged with whereabouts violations by the Athletics Integrity Unit on Friday and has been provisionally suspended.

The Nigeria-born 22-year-old could face a two-year ban which would rule her out of the Tokyo Olympic Games, which have been postponed until 2021.

Naser produced a major upset at last year's world championships by beating Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo in 48.15 seconds－the fastest women's 400m time since 1985.

According to World Athletics' anti-doping rules, athletes must report their whereabouts to anti-doping authorities at a particular time every day to be available for tests. Three whereabouts failures in a year can result in a suspension.

BASKETBALL

Popovich 'embarrassed as a white person'

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich on Saturday issued an emotional statement about the death of George Floyd, saying the United States "is in trouble" and that he is "embarrassed as a white person" to know that a black man can be still be "lynched".

Floyd's death in Minneapolis last month after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, placed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes, triggered outrage, protests and civil unrest across the United States. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder.

"In a strange, counter-intuitive sort of way, the best teaching moment of this most recent tragedy ... was the look on the officer's face," Popovich said in a stirring video posted by Spurs on Twitter.

The 71-year-old Popovich called on white people to raise their voices, speak truth to power "no matter what the consequences" and not let things lie.

Xinhua - Agencies