Sports Brief

OLYMPICS

Doping scandal may keep Russia out of Paralympics

Russia may not participate in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympics as they are going through a doping scandal.

“The Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) failed to meet the requirements by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC),” said the IPC Board of Directors.

“For this reason, we will unanimously suspend RPC’s qualification,” said the IPC on Tuesday.

In August 2016, the IPC suspended RPC’s qualification, as the country was suspected of doping.

Russia is accused of doping usage at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and Paralympics.

The International Olympic Committee banned participation at 2016 Rio Olympics to certain players, but the IPC banned all the players from participating in the Paralympics.

“If they fulfill the requirements of the RPC, they may be able to participate in the PyeongChang Paralympics,” the ICS said. However, it does not seem easy to participate at Pyeongchang representing Russia as the World Anti-Doping Agency continues to investigate Russia’s doping practice.

At worst, the wheelchair curling team may be the only team to participate since the World Curling Federation decides whether athletes can participate in the Paralympics or not.

BASKETBALL

Anyang KGC decided to

stick with Sykes

The No. 1 ranked team in the Korean Basketball League, Anyang KGC, decided to keep Keifer Sykes, who helped the team win three games over the New Year holiday.

“We have decided to keep Sykes for the rest of the season,” KGC said. The KGC will be utilizing their foreign duo - David Simon and Sykes - to try to win the regular season as well as the championship game.

Earlier in the season, KGC was considering exchanging Sykes with Eric Wise of the Jeonju KCC Egis.

To play against Seoul Samsung Thunders’ Ricardo Ratliffe-Michael Craig-Kim Jun-il trio, KGC tried to bring in a taller player like Wise, who is 193 centimeters (6 feet 6 inches) tall.

However, the atmosphere changed as Sykes showed his concentration.

With the excellent play by Sykes, KGC said, “We thought it’ll be better to keep current team’s teamwork as we just won three games.”