Sports digest

A round-up of today's other sports stories in brief

Sumo wrestling in financial crisis

SUMO WRESTLING: Japan's ancient sport rang up debts of almost $50 million in 2011 after a match-fixing scandal which triggered a television black-out and a government warning.

“We find ourselves in an extremely difficult position,” Japan Sumo Association chairman Kitanoumi said yesterday. “We must face the problem and quickly restore the public’s faith in sumo.”

The association was forced to pull the plug on last March’s spring tournament after a sting operation uncovered a match-fixing ring via texts left on mobile phones of wrestlers involved.

The sport ended last year on another embarrassing note when a sumo gym chief was given a severe dressing down for beating wrestlers with a golf club.

Lengthy charge sheets prompting mass sackings and even arrests and convictions have become a public relations disaster for the sport in recent years.

Emergency exercise begins

OLYMPIC GAMES: Thousands of emergency workers and government staff began a two-day exercise yesterday in how to deal with a major terrorism incident during London 2012. Volunteers posing as dazed travellers emerged from a London underground station, some coughing, some covered in fake blood and some on stretchers as police and emergency workers swarmed outside.

The exercise, which resembled scenes following suicide bombings in London in July 2005, is the most high-profile test of the emergency services’ readiness to deal with a major incident during the July Games (July 27th-August 12th).

It will also check whether lessons have been learned from the 2005 attacks, when four suicide bombers killed 52.

An inquest into those deaths made numerous recommendations last year, including action to ensure better communications after hearing that radios used by police and paramedics did not work below ground.

Jelimo named in Kenya 800m team

ATHLETICS:Kenya's Olympic 800 metres champion Pamela Jelimo has been named in a 10-member team to represent the east African nation at next month's World Indoor Championships in Istanbul.

Jelimo became Kenya’s first woman Olympic champion in Beijing four years ago before winning the $1 million Diamond League jackpot in the same year. She has struggled subsequently at major events and did not race last year.

Her return to the team comes after she finished second at a meeting in France last week.

Former world junior champion Winnie Chebet will also contest the race. Boaz Lalang, another 800m specialist, is the only survivor of the team who competed in Doha in 2010.

KENYA TEAM: Men – Boaz Lalang, Timothy Kitum, Silas Kiplagat, Bethwel Birgen, Edwin Cheruiyot Soi, Augustine Choge. Women – Pamela Jelimo, Winny Chebet, Hellen Onsando Obiri, Sylvia Kibet.

FedExCup gets five-year extension

GOLF: The FedExCup play-offs, the PGA Tour's lucrative four-event season finale, have been extended for a further five years, commissioner Tim Finchem revealed yesterday.

Launched in 2007, the play-offs will continue to offer $35 million in total bonus money to players based on their finish in the points standings, including a $10 million jackpot for the overall winner.

Finchem said that FedEx had extended its umbrella sponsorship until the end of the 2017 season. “We’ve seen it grow, it’s become a big part of what the PGA Tour is all about,” said Finchem at Dove Mountain on the first day of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. “It has had the effect of pulling our season together.”

While not disclosing any financial details, Finchem said there would be further growth in the FedExCup over the next five years. “How that plays out in terms of the distribution of dollars we’re not sure,” he said.

Fans to get chance to buy 40,000 Olympic tickets

OLYMPIC GAMES: Fans who missed out in last year's Olympic ballot will get the chance to buy 40,000 seats for athletics events when the last batch of one million tickets for go on sale in April.

The athletics tickets cover all nine days of competition, although numbers will vary from session to session. London 2012 organisers have confirmed that there will be thousands of tickets available for the most sought after track and field sessions, such as the men’s 100m final.

The vast majority of the 40,000 athletics tickets are likely to be sold within 24 hours of the website going live because officials are considering allowing every eligible applicant the chance to buy at least two each.

With 20,000 people who missed out twice in last year’s ballot being given a head start to choose the best tickets, it is highly likely most of the seats for the Olympic Stadium will be quickly snapped up. Exact numbers for the opening ceremony are thought to be in the low thousands.