SPORTS digest
Ex-CART star wins Paralympic gold
rio de janeiro
Nearly 15 years to the day he lost his legs in an auto racing crash in Germany, Italian athlete Alex Zanardi captured a gold medal Wednesday at the Rio Paralympics.
Competing in the men’s road hand-cycling time trial, Zanardi won in a time of 28 minutes, 36.81 seconds, ahead of Stuart Tripp of Australia and Oscar Sanchez of the United States.
On Sept. 15, 2001, Zanardi was nearing the end of the American Memorial 500, a CART race, when his car was struck hard by another as he tried to merge back onto the track from pit row. Both of his legs were amputated above the knee.
“At the time, I was asked if I would ever step back in a race car, but what was very important for me was to go into the bathroom and pee on my own, but I could not do that. I had to be helped. That was my No. 1 priority,” Zanardi told reporters after his race Wednesday. “Day by day I managed to regain control and strength, regain some confidence and concentrate on different things and here I am now.”
SoCon suggests it may move hoops from N.C.
ASHEVILLE, N.C.
Southern Conference commissioner John Iamarino has hinted that the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in the collegiate sports league could be moved from Asheville, North Carolina.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that Iamarino’s comments Tuesday came a day after the NCAA pulled seven championship events out of North Carolina because of a law requiring transgender people to use bathrooms matching the sex on their birth certificate.
Iamarino said Tuesday that upcoming meetings of athletic administrators in October and of presidents and chancellors in November could result in the tournament being moved. He says the groups will “have a full discussion” on the issue.
Currently, the 2017 SoCon tournament is scheduled for March 2-6 at the U.S. Cellular Center.
Leicester wins to open Champions League
bruges, belgium
Leicester opened its first Champions League campaign with a comfortable 3-0 victory at Belgian champion Club Brugge on Wednesday, with Riyad Mahrez scoring twice.
The unlikely English Premier League champion took its charmed form into Europe, with Marc Albrighton scoring an easy goal after just five minutes. The Brugge defense misjudged a long throw-in and the winger only had to steer the ball into an empty net.
A bad pass forced veteran Timmy Simons to bring Jamie Vardy down near the penalty box in the 28th minute and Mahrez curled the free kick home to make the rest of the Group G match a stroll for Leicester.
Mahrez scored his second goal from the penalty spot in the 61st minute, after Vardy had been floored by the goalkeeper on a breakaway.
NASCAR beefs up penalties for Chase
charlotte, n.c.
NASCAR’s playoffs are set to begin with a new set of rules that gives the sanctioning body the power to issue far stiffer penalties — so stringent that a driver could lose the championship if his team fails inspection.
The increased penalties announced Wednesday give NASCAR the authority to levy a harsh penalty should a car fail a post-race trip to the Laser Inspection Station. How stiff? A winning team would not be able to use the victory to advance to the next round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
The same penalty could apply to a team that does not have enough secure lug nuts on a car’s wheels at the end of a race.
The new punishments, under guidelines applying to “encumbered finishes,” will go into effect if a team fails the post-race laser by a significant amount or if three or more of the 20 lug nuts aren’t secure after a race. A winning team will not be stripped of the victory, but the benefits that come with a win could be docked.
Associated Press