Sports

ST. PETERSURG: An official with knowledge of the decision says pole vault great Sergei Bubka of Ukraine has become the sixth declared candidate in the race to be the next IOC president. The official tells The Associated Press that the 49-year-old former Olympic and world champion is announcing his candidacy Tuesday to succeed Jacques Rogge, who steps down in September. The official spoke on …

LONDON: Carl Froch enjoyed sweet revenge by unanimously out-pointing Mikkel Kessler in an epic world super-middleweight title unification fight Saturday. The English boxer avenged a 2010 points defeat to the Dane after a disciplined display behind his jab earned scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 115-113 in front of 18,000 fans at the O2 Arena in London. But Froch, who maintained his piston-like jab through …

MANCHESTER: After spending nearly a year away from the baize, Ronnie O’Sullivan predicted “car crash” TV as he launched the defense of his world snooker title. In the end, his journey to recapturing the game’s biggest prize couldn’t have been smoother. O’Sullivan, snooker’s most talented and controversial player, won the world championship Monday for the fifth time, defending his title …

LOS ANGELES: World welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather will put his undefeated record on the line when he fights Mexican champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on Sept. 14 in Las Vegas. “I chose my opponent for September 14th and it’s Canelo Alvarez,” the 36-year-old Mayweather tweeted Wednesday night. “I’m giving the fans what they want.” Mayweather fought May 4 and remained unbeaten with a …

LONDON: Six-time Olympic champion Chris Hoy, who spearheaded a golden period of British track cycling dominance, announced his retirement Thursday, content he had nothing left to prove after a long and stellar career. Britain’s most successful Olympian, who won two golds at the 2012 London Games to add to three from Beijing four years earlier and his first in Athens in 2004, said the time was …

LOS ANGELES: Olympic swimming great Michael Phelps has thrown cold water on a report that he would come out of retirement with a view to swimming at the 2016 Rio Games. “Why do I keep getting texts about coming back?” Phelps said on Twitter Friday night after a Florida television station reported he planned to return to the pool. Peter Busch of an NBC station in Fort Myers, Florida, …

TEHRAN: Arch foes Iran and the U.S. have found some common ground in the fight to save wrestling as an Olympic sport. U.S. wrestling coach Zeke Jones on Tuesday called the sport an important “ambassador,” suggesting possible cooperation to fight a decision by the International Olympic Committee to drop wrestling from the 2020 Games. “Wrestling has brought closer the people of Iran and the U.S.,” Jones …

PARIS: Wrestlers around the world on Wednesday vowed to fight to save the ancient sport’s Olympic status, after the International Olympic Committee voted to drop it for the 2020 Games. Japan and Turkey — whose cities Tokyo and Istanbul are bidding to host the Games in seven years’ time — led the calls for the world body to reconsider, as an online petition was organised urging a …