LOOK! FANS BACK IN FRANCE

| Tuesday, July 14, 2020 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

SPIELBERG, Austria—standing on the podium to celebrate his latest win, Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton raised a clenched right fist and then delivered a message to his fellow drivers not to slow down in the fight against racism.

It’s 52 years since American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos introduced that powerfully defiant gesture to a worldwide TV audience when standing on the podium during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

On Sunday Hamilton and the other 19 F1 drivers wore black t-shirts with “End Racism” on them, as they had done at last weekend’s season-opening Austrian GP.

Most again took the knee on the grid before Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix in Austria.

Others still did not and even questioned in the prerace drivers’ briefing whether it should still be done.

“Some people were asking ‘How long do we have to continue to do this?’ Some felt like one was enough last week, and I just had to [tell] them that racism is going to be here for probably longer than our time here,” Hamilton said after winning his 85th F1 race. “People of color who are subject to racism don’t have time to [just] ‘take a moment’ to protest and that be it. We’ve got to continue to push for equality and raise awareness for it.”

Smith and Carlos were representing a country being torn apart, after the

AP

LE HAVRE, France—for the first time since the coronavirus shut down sports and chased away spectators, fans returned Sunday to elite European soccer, turning out in their thousands to see Paris Saintgermain’s (PSG) superstars back on a field.

For their return to work, PSG’S marquee attacking duo of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe sported face masks in red, white and blue PSG colors on their way into the arena and wore messages of thanks for health workers on their kit.

“Now it’s for real...we’re back,” Mbappe tweeted before kickoff against Le Havre. The exhibition match in the Normandy port city was the first encounter in front of fans to feature one of Europe’s elite clubs since the outbreak erupted.

Only 5,000 people were allowed inside Le Havre’s 25,000-seat Stade Oceane to see the French League 2 club take on PSG’S star-studded squad, with Neymar and Mbappe in the starting XI.

PSG showed little mercy on the field with Mauro Icardi and Neymar both scoring twice. That rare sound of real fans erupting into cheers at their team scoring was heard nine times as PSG beat Le Havre 9-0.

Upper tiers of seating were empty. Spectators had to wear face masks to get into the arena, although many then took them off once settled in their seats. Families and friends sat together in groups but groups stayed separated. Ball carriers wore masks and gloves. Loudspeakers broadcast appeals for social distancing. Pitch-side photographers were made to step with their shoes into trays of disinfectant.

PSG players had the words “Tous unis” (All united) and “Merci” (Thank you) on their kit to show appreciation for health workers.

Among Europe’s top 5 leagues, only France is letting spectators back into soccer stadiums. Germany finished its season without fans but the league and clubs are exploring plans to play 2020-21 with fans. Play has resumed without fans in Spain, England and Italy.

France stopped its league and never resumed it in the wake of its outbreak. The return of fans comes as the country’s death toll this week surpassed 30,000 and amid growing concerns of a possible second wave of infections.

Football matches are blamed for having helped speed the initial spread of the pandemic across Europe. In Serbia, matches played in front of thousands of fans despite the pandemic were followed last month by players and the CEO of Red Star Belgrade testing positive for the coronavirus.

The 24-man squad picked by Paris Coach Thomas Tuchel was gearing up after four months of inactivity for its last competitive matches of the season. PSG plays the finals of the French Cup and the League Cup later this month and the quarterfinals of the Champions League in August.

FERRARI IN TROUBLE EARLY

IT’S already the pits for Ferrari, just two races into the new Formula One season.

Four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel and rising star Charles Leclerc are off the pace, and crashed with each other on the track Sunday for the second time in the space of four races.

The incident at the Styrian Grand Prix in Austria came on the first lap. Both drivers were so far back on the grid—vettel starting 10th and Leclerc 14th—that they tangled in heavy traffic when normally they should have been near the front.

“I was fighting two other cars, we were already three cars into Turn 3,” Vettel said.

Leclerc tried to overtake him down the right entering a hairpin bend but instead ended up riding over the back of Vettel’s car, mangling his rear wing.

Vettel, who finished 10th last week at the season-opening Austrian GP on the same Red Bull Ring track, had to retire while Leclerc came