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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Athletics ● The mystery over the “official” time of 4:06.42 for Kenyan star Faith Kipyegon at the Nike “Breaking4″ event and the shown 4:06.91 event time was explained by Runner’s World.
The 4:06.91 time was the standard measurement of the time from the firing of the starter’s pistol to the time that Kipyegon crossed the finish line. The 4:06.42 time is a “chip time” from when Kipyegon actually began her race effort, to the time she finished.
This is seen often in mass road races, where some runners do not cross the start line for quite a while, but not in something as short as a mile. But now you know.
¶
The Times of London reported on an e-mail message from Grand Slam Track Senior Director of Racing Kyle Merber sent to athlete agents on Tuesday (1st) concerning appearance and prize-money fees owed to athletes who competed in the Kingston, Miramar and Philadelphia Slams:
“We’d like to provide the following update regarding payments for the athletes who competed in Grand Slam Track events this year. Our plan is to make payments for Kingston prize money before the end of July and the remaining payments due by the end of September, which includes the honoring of Los Angeles appearance fees.”
The final meet, scheduled for UCLA’s Drake Stadium in Los Angeles for 28-29 June, was canceled over financial concerns, despite more than 10,000 tickets being sold for the two days combined, with more than two weeks to go.
● Football ● Much attention continues to be paid to the attendance figures at the FIFA Club World Cup, with the first round of playoff matches completed.
The group stage had 1,667,819 in attendance across 48 matches for an average of 34,746.
For the eight Round-of-16 playoff matches, Inside World Football offered a table showing 342,006 in attendance for an average of 63.28% of capacity (550,744). Of the eight matches:
● 2 had from 20-26,000
● 2 had from 30-35,000
● 1 had from 40-45,000
● 3 had from 60-65,000
OK, not great. Eight matches are left.
¶
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the guilty verdicts against former Fox International Channels head Hernan Lopez and Full Play Group SA dealing with television rights, wire fraud and money laundering for multiple major football tournaments, including the FIFA World Cup and Copa Libertadores. Full Play was also convicted on charges related to Olympic qualifying matches and the Copa America tournament.
All of the convictions had been thrown out in September 2023 by District Judge Pamela Chen (Eastern District of New York), citing a May 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision. But the appeals court ordered her to reinstate the convictions and to continue the proceedings in line with their opinion.
Lopez’s attorney promised to continue their appeals.
● Swimming ● The ancient suit by U.S. swimmers Michael Andrew and Tom Shields and Hungarian star Katinka Hosszu against World Aquatics (then FINA) for restrictions of trade over a planned 2018 meet in Italy, will apparently come to trial at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California beginning on 12 January 2026.
World Aquatics has energetically opposed the suit and it appears to be thrown out at one point, but a September 2024 ruling by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held the matter to be sufficient to be tried.
● Table Tennis ● After the disruption, screaming and shouting that caused the International Table Tennis Federation’s Annual General Meeting in March to be suspended, the ITTF is obligated to convene the meeting once again to finish voting on several offices. On Wednesday, the federation noted:
“Given the complexity of this situation, the ITTF engaged a leading law firm to ensure the continuation of the AGM is managed in full compliance with ITTF statutes and Swiss law, where the federation is headquartered. The date and details of the AGM’s continuation will be announced as soon as possible.”
It can be expected that at the re-convened meeting, a continued challenge to the Presidential vote will be made. ITTF Senior Executive Vice President Khalil Al-Mohannadi, the loser in the election by 104-102, has already announced an appeal to the ITTF Tribunal and to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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