7 positives at Russian hockey club CSKA Moscow
The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:
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Storied Russian hockey club CSKA Moscow says that seven players have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The club says the unnamed players tested positive Tuesday and that none of them are displaying symptoms.
CSKA says in a statement the team has been tested for the virus each day since returning from vacation.
The announcement comes hours after another Kontinental Hockey League club, Avangard Omsk, said that it was withdrawing from a pre-season tournament following positive tests for 20 people. That figure included players and staff.
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AUSTIN, Texas — Texas will delay the start of the public high school football season for its largest schools by a month as the state grapples with a recent surge of new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Instead of starting practice Aug. 3, those schools can now start Sept. 7. The first games can be played Sept. 24, a month after the originally scheduled opening weekend.
The University Interscholastic League said it focused the delay on larger schools as many of them are in the states largest metropolitan areas, which have been hit hardest by the surge of virus cases.
Some school districts are already changing their calendars to delay the start of the academic year, or to begin the year with several weeks of online classes. The Houston school district, the largest in the state, won’t meet on campus until mid-October.
The UIL’s announcement said it also anticipates that not all schools will start at the same time and could face disruptions during the season.
“These adjustments reflect the public health situation at this time and the varying numbers of COVID-19 cases across different geographic areas of the state,” the UIL said in its announcement.
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Danielle Collins has been kicked out of World TeamTennis for breaking the league’s COVID-19 protocols.
WTT CEO Carlos Silva says Collins left The Greenbrier resort hosting all of the matches during the league’s three-week season and went out of the state of West Virginia.
“The protocols have been put in place and communicated numerous times to protect the health and safety of our players, coaches and staff,” Silva said.
Collins is a 26-year-old American who was a semifinalist at the 2019 Australian Open. She has been ranked as high as No. 23 and currently is No. 51.
She was playing for the Orlando Storm at WTT, which took all nine of its teams and put them at The Greenbrier, where the season began July 12 and ends Aug. 2.
The WTT is not affiliated with the WTA or ATP professional tours, which have been suspended since March because of the coronavirus pandemic and plan to resume next month.
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The tournament that was supposed to mark the official return of men’s professional tennis amid the coronavirus pandemic has been canceled.
The Citi Open in Washington, scheduled to start with Aug. 13 qualifying, was called off Tuesday because of what tournament manager Mark Ein said are “too many unresolved external issues, including various international travel restrictions as well as troubling health and safety trends.”
The men’s and women’s pro tours both have been suspended since March and are planning to return next month. The first event on the most recently announced calendar is a women’s tournament in Palermo, Italy, starting Aug. 3.
With Washington’s hard-court tournament now gone, the first chance for men to play sanctioned matches will be the Masters-level event usually played in Cincinnati that was moved to the site of the U.S. Open, starting Aug. 22.
That is to be followed by the U.S. Open, beginning Aug. 31.
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A Russian team playing in the Kontinental Hockey League has withdrawn from a pre-season tournament after 20 people from the club tested positive for the coronavirus.
Avangard Omsk general manager Alexei Volkov says the positive tests come from players and members of team staff who were tested during training camp. Volkov adds that the people are in isolation and that most don’t have obvious symptoms.
Avangard was scheduled to play in a pre-season tournament from Aug. 4-9 in Sochi.
The last KHL season was cut short midway through the playoffs when the coronavirus pandemic made international travel difficult.
The KHL is aiming to start the new season on Sept. 2 and expects to finalize the calendar after a board meeting scheduled for next week.
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Swimming governing body FINA is giving almost $6.5 million to help athletes prepare for the postponed Tokyo Olympics.
FINA says it wants to help athletes who “endure hardships related to their training and competitive opportunities due to the pandemic.”
The plan includes $4 million for at least 160 national federations to support athletes with expenses for training, competitions and living over the next year.
A further $2 million will support 100 scholarships for athletes who currently do not have Olympic qualifying standards to prepare at national or continental centers. FINA supports regional bases in Russia, Senegal, Thailand and the United States.
Grants totalling $460,000 will go to continental swimming bodies to distribute.
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The ISTAF track meet in Berlin has outlined plans to have up to 3,500 spectators in attendance on Sept. 13.
Organizers say they have developed a wide-ranging plan to ensure spectators stay healthy but haven’t revealed specifics. They were hoping for up to 45,000 fans at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin before the pandemic.
Meet director Martin Seeber says he hopes it will be “a first small step back to normality.”
Pole vault world record holder Armand “Mondo” Duplantis is headlining the event.
The announcement comes as other European track meets plan to bring fans back. Tickets are on sale for the Diamond League meet in Monaco next month and organizers in Lausanne are staging a pole vault competition in the city which could have 5,000 fans if Swiss authorities agree.
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This season’s Scottish Cup final will be played midway through next season.
The Scottish soccer federation says the pandemic-delayed competition will be completed on Dec. 20. That is more than seven months after the original date for the final on May 9.
The competition was stopped at the semifinal stage. Defending champion Celtic will play Aberdeen and Edinburgh rivals Hearts and Hibernian will meet in the other semifinal on the weekend of Oct. 31-Nov. 1 at Hampden Park in Glasgow.
Organizers say players who would ordinarily be barred from playing for a second team in the same competition can play for their new club even if they were earlier fielded by a different team.
The 2020-21 season in the Scottish league will start on Aug. 1. The 2019-20 league season did not resume after the lockdown and Celtic was declared champion based on average points per game.
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