PANORAMA: LA84 political star Kindel passes at 86; more Kenyan doping; Watson, Grossman win season sport climbing titles

American Natalia Grossman, the 2024 IFSC World Cup Boulder seasonal champion (Photo: Sebastian Nanco).

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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡

● Olympic Games 1984: Los Angeles ● One of the powerhouses of civic life in Los Angeles has passed, as Maureen Kindel died on 26 September at age 86.

She was a key member of the Board of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1984 Olympic Games, working primarily behind the scenes to maintain political support for the Games, especially in the early days when there was considerable doubt that the event would succeed without public funding.

The 1984 Games, of course, was the pivot point for the Olympic Movement and finished with a stunning surplus of $232.5 million. Kindel continued as a charter Board member of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, now known as the LA84 Foundation, which received 40% of that surplus, and continued serving until her passing.

If you were involved in civic life in Los Angeles, you knew Maureen Kindel, and it was even better if she knew you. Beyond serving on countless committees and boards, alternately charming and commanding, she was the consummate L.A. insider as the founder of two public affairs firms, Rose & Kindel in 1987 and Kindel Gagan in 2010.

She was a close adviser to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and was appointed as the President of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. Originally from New York, she moved to Los Angeles in 1971 and the city was never the same.

● Athletics ● More doping news from the Athletics Integrity Unit, as Kenya’s Emmaculate Anyango Achol, 24, the fourth-place finisher at the 2024 women’s World Cross Country Championships, was provisionally suspended for use of Testosterone and Erythropoietin (EPO).

She’s no. 2 all-time on the road 10 km list at 28:57 in Valencia (ESP) last January.

Ethiopian men’s marathoner Yimer Bililign (2:18:47 in 2024) was banned for two years from 6 September 2024 for use of Prednisolone and Prednisone).

● Curling ● Yes, winter is coming. The Grand Slam of Curling opened with the Tour Challenge in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island (CAN), with Scotland’s 2023 World Champion, Bruce Mouat winning the final by 10-3 over the rink of Canada’s Brad Gushue, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist.

It was a 5-3 match until the seventh end, but Mouat’s five scores in that end closed the door.

Two-time Worlds bronze medalist Kerri Einarson led her rink to a tight, 5-4, win in the women’s final against fellow Canadian (and two-time World Champion) Rachel Homan. Down 3-1 at the end of four, Einarson’s rink managed a point in the fifth and two in the sixth to take a 4-3 lead. Homan tied it in the seventh, but Einarson managed a final-end point to get her first Tier One victory at the Tour Challenge.

● Cycling ● At the season-ending UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, South Africa’s Paris bronze winner Alan Hatherly won his second race of the season, finishing in 1:26:56, a full 30 seconds ahead of France’s Mathis Azzaro (1:27:26). Third was Paris runner-up Victor Koretzky (FRA: 1:27:44).

Hatherly won the seasonal title at 1,678 points, ahead of Koretzky (1,359) and Filippo Colombo (SUI: 1,229).

Koretzky and Azzaro were 1-2 in the Short Track race in 21:25 and 21:26, with Hatherly third in 21:31.

France’s Loana Lecomte, the 2022 European champ, won her second XCO race of the 2024 series in 1:19:01, nine seconds up on Laura Stigger (AUT: 1:19:10). Swiss Sina Frei was a distant third in 1:20:20.

Frei won the Short Track race in 21:53, just a second up on Lecomte (21:54), with Evie Richards (GBR: 21:55) in third.

Australia’s seven-time Worlds medal winner Troy Brosnan and France’s Marine Cabirou won the Downhill finals.

● Equestrian ● At the FEI League of Nations Final in Barcelona (ESP), Germany repeated its 2023 win in the then “Nations Cup” competition, taking a tight battle with the Netherlands, 12 faults to 16.

Andre Thieme, Olympic Jumping champ Christian Kukuk and Richard Vogel had no faults in the first round and Thieme (4) and Kukuk (8) had second-round penalties, but that was enough to win. Sweden finished third with 20 total faults.

The U.S. was sixth (28) with Spencer Smith, Lucy Davis Kennedy, Aaron Vale and Alex Matz.

It’s the third win all-time for Germany and they are the first to post a repeat triumph.

● Figure Skating ● Canadian ice dancer Nikolaj Sorensen, 35, has been suspended by the International Skating Union as of Friday, after being “informed by Skate Canada of the sanction listed in the Abuse-Free Sport Registry concerning Canadian National Team athlete Nikolaj Soerensen, and it is taking all the necessary measures to comply with the decision of ineligibility for an indefinite period.”

Skate Canada listed Sorensen as indefinitely suspended for a minimum of six years from 2 October, after he was penalized for “sexual maltreatment” by the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner.

Sorensen is alleged to have assaulted an American coach and skater in 2012, which he has denied. Sorenson was still competing with long-time dance partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry, winning the Four Continents silver medal in 2023 and 2024.

● Gymnastics ● Sweden’s Tonya Paulsson won two events and earned a silver on a third at the final leg of the FIG World Challenge Cup series, in Szombathely (HUN). Paulsson won on Beam at 12.966 and on Floor at 12.933, and was just behind Britain’s Charlotte Booth, 13.266 to 13.033, on the Uneven Bars. Darya Yassinskaya (KAZ) took the Vault at 13.166.

In the men’s competitions, home favorite – and two-time European Floor medalist – Krisztofer Meszaros (HUN) was also a two-event winner, taking the Floor Exercise at 14.433, and the Horizontal Bar at 13.900.

Italy went 1-2 on the Pommel Horse with Edoardo de Rosa (15.133) and Gabriele Targhetta (14.933), and de Rosa returned to win the Parallel Bars at 14.233. Nikola Simonov (AZE) won on Rings at 14.700, and Assan Salimov (KAZ) took the Vault at 14.300.

● Sport Climbing ● The IFSC World Cup of 2024 closed out in Seoul (KOR), with both event and seasonal titles on the line.

In Boulder, Anastasia Sanders of the U.S. claimed her first World Cup win with a 3T4Z ~ 7/13 performance in the final, ahead of Zelia Avezou (FRA: 3T4Z ~ 9/7). Fellow American Natalia Grossman was fourth (2T4Z ~ 5/5), but won the seasonal title with 2,610 points.

Korea’s Do-hyun Lee won his second straight Boulder World Cup, winning a difficult event at 2T2Z ~ 4/4 over Maximillian Milne (GBR: 2T2Z ~ 4/5). Olympic Combined silver medalist Sorato Anraku (JPN) was the seasonal winner with 3,365 points.

China’s Xinshang Wang won the men’s Speed final, 6.23-10.60 over Amir Maimuratov (KAZ), but American Sam Watson, the Olympic bronze winner, got the season’s win with 3,185 points. Yufei Zhou of China won the women’s final in Seoul, timing 6.78 to 8.08 for Rajiah Sallsabillah (INA). But Olympic silver winner Lijuan Deng (CHN) took the season title at 2,845.

In Lead, Japan’s Anraku won the men’s final at 45+, just ahead of Lee based on their semi-final scores. Britain’s Olympic Combined champ Toby Roberts won the season’s title at 3,380.

Austria’s Jessica Pilz, the Paris women’s Combined silver winner, took the Seoul women’s finale by 48-46 for Japan’s Ai Mori, and won the seasonal crown, 3,220 to 3,000 over Olympic champ Janja Garnbret (SLO).

● Table Tennis ● As expected, host China dominated the WTT China Smash in Beijing, with Shidong Lin scoring a come-from-behind upset over two-time Olympic men’s Singles champ Long Ma in the men’s final by 4-3 (11-4, 7-11, 5-11, 13-15, 11-4, 11-5, 11-8).

China had all 10 finalists in the event. Olympic runner-up Yingsha Sun lived up to her top seeding and won the women’s title, 4-2, over Manyu Wang (11-6, 12-14, 11-4, 6-11, 11-8, 11-7).

Fourth-seeds Jingkun Liang and Chuqin Wang won the men’s Doubles over top-seeded Gaoyuan Lin and Shidong Lin, 3-2, and no. 6 seeds Tianyi Qian and Xingtong Chen won the women’s Doubles against Yidi Wang and Sun, 3-1. Second seeds Lin and Man Kaui won the Mixed Doubles with a 3-1 victory against Gaoyuan Lin and Yidi Wang.

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