Rugby-Tandy appointed as Wales coach
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The Star
17 minutes ago
- The Star
Soccer-Mussolini's great-grandson hopes skills on pitch outweigh family name
(Reuters) -Defender Romano Floriani Mussolini, the great-grandson of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, said he wants his footballing talent to mean more than his family name as he readies for a Serie A debut with promoted side Cremonese. The 22-year-old right back, on loan from Lazio, joined Cremonese earlier this month after the club earned promotion to the Italian top flight via the Serie B playoffs. "I'm here to play football. My surname? It has bothered others more than it's ever bothered me. It's a heavy name for others, but not for me," Floriani Mussolini told a press conference on Wednesday. "The less it's talked about, the better. I'm here to express myself on the pitch, nothing else... I want to gain valuable experience in Serie A, go up against more experienced players, and play as much as possible to showcase my abilities." Floriani Mussolini is the son of Mauro Floriani and Italian politician Alessandra Mussolini, a former member of the European Parliament for the Forza Italia party and the grand-daughter of Benito Mussolini, who was prime minister of Italy from 1922 to 1943 following a fascist coup. Floriani Mussolini, who can also play as a winger, made 37 appearances for Juve Stabia last season, who lost to Cremonese in the semi-finals of the playoffs. He joined the Lazio youth academy at the age of 13 from rivals AS Roma. "The match against Lazio will be special, it's the team I grew up with and support," he added. "But right now I'm focused on giving my all for Cremonese, and I want to win that one." Cremonese begin their Serie A campaign away to AC Milan on August 23. (Reporting by Shifa Jahan in BengaluruEditing by Christian Radnedge)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Cycling-War on hidden motors goes undercover
Cycling - Tour de France - Stage 17 - Bollene to Valence - Bollene, France - July 23, 2025 General view of riders in action during stage 17 REUTERS/Benoit Tessier BOLLENE, France (Reuters) -The International Cycling Union (UCI) has intensified its fight against mechanical doping, employing intelligence-driven methods to combat increasingly sophisticated alleged cheating in professional cycling. Once, inspectors relied on random X-rays and magnetic scans to catch offenders. Now, the UCI is borrowing tactics from law enforcement – building confidential sources, mapping risk profiles and monitoring bike changes in real time – to stay ahead in what officials call a technological arms race. Mechanical doping – riders using concealed motors – first gained attention in 2010 and led to the six-year ban of Belgium's Femke Van Den Driessche after a bluetooth-controlled motor was discovered in her seat tube at a cyclo-cross event. Since then, the UCI has expanded its detection arsenal, now employing daily checks of up to 60 bikes during the Tour de France. All bikes have passed the checks since the Tour started in Lille on July 5. "We have the ability... to go further with our examinations, whether that's a partial dismantlement of the bike to look into certain components, act upon suspicions, act upon information that we have," Nick Raudenski, the UCI Head of the Fight Against Technological Fraud, told Reuters on Wednesday. Raudenski, a former criminal investigator with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, took over in May last year and immediately pushed for a new approach. "Bike controls, it's something that I've always equated anytime that I've done speeches or done training, it's like throwing your hook out in the middle of a lake trying to catch fish," he said. "If you don't have a strategy, if you're not informed about how to catch fish, what time of day, what kind of fish, where you can catch fish." THINK LIKE A FRAUDSTER Part of that strategy is to think like the cheats. "My idea is to put myself in the shoes of a fraudster. How would I do this and how would I get away with it? And that's part of my background as a criminal investigator, to try to think about not what we know, but what we don't know," he said. The challenge is relentless innovation. "It's a bit of a technological arms race. Components are getting lighter, smaller. Easier to conceal, which is harder to detect," Raudenski said. "And so, trying to stay ahead of what's potentially possible is always a challenge." For Raudenski, the mission is clear: keep fans believing in the sport. "People still need to believe, at least from the technological fraud side, that they're not climbing a stage like yesterday, and people just immediately think, 'oh, well, they must be on a motor'," he said. "Knowing that our processes are in place, that we're conducting the controls that we're doing, that there is that insurance that the enforcement controls that we have in place, that doesn't happen at this level." (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Cricket-England toil as India ease to 78-0 after being put in to bat
Cricket - International Test Match Series - Fourth Test - England v India - Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester, Britain - July 23, 2025 England's Ben Stokes reacts after bowling Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -England struggled to trouble India's openers after putting the touring side in to bat in the fourth test at Old Trafford on Wednesday, as they cruised through to lunch on 78-0. Leading 2-1 in the five-test series, risk-taking England skipper Ben Stokes ignored historical precedent after winning the toss for the fourth successive match -- no side winning the toss and bowling first has ever won a test at Old Trafford. Stokes cited the favourable bowling conditions as the reason behind his decision, but when the match got under way, England's bowlers had little joy. KL Rahul looked untroubled as he passed 1,000 test runs in England -- only the fifth Indian to do so -- while partner Yashasvi Jaiswal overcame a broken bat to blunt the home attack. England did keep their frustrations under control, and there was no repeat of the feisty clashes between the teams in the third test at Lord's, with Rahul unbeaten on 40 and Jaiswal on 36 at the interval. (Reporting by Peter Hall, editing by Ed Osmond)
