THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 2014 SPORTS Famous sporting deaths in 2013

PARIS: Famous sportspeople who died in by this quote in his biography: “Of all the once by England-made his United debut in mates like Valery Karpin he never made the brother David also died of cancer, was a 2013: titles that I’ve been privileged to have, the 1952 and played 688 times for the club-a move abroad. Capped 28 times by Russia- much loved character, whose courageous title of ‘dad’ has always been the best.” figure surpassed by only Ryan Giggs, Bobby scoring four goals-he appeared at the 1992 battle with the illness had endeared him ATHLETICS Charlton and . He was a World Cup and Euro ‘96. “Tsymbalar had a further with the public. Indeed when SAMSON KIMOMBWA TOMMY MORRISON coalminer originally and continued working reputation as the most talented player in Frankel ran his final race at Ascot in October First Kenyan indeed African to break the Former world heavyweight boxing in the mines even when he became a regu- contemporary Russian football history,” the 2012, the suitably named Champion Stakes, 10,000 meters world record died aged 57 in champion who was diagnosed with the HIV lar first choice under . Went on to state daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta wrote on its the 32,000 capacity crowd gave him three January of cardiac arrest caused by acute virus that causes AIDS in 1996 died on be part of the United team that won the website. cheers both before and after the race, mov- hemorrhagic pancreatitis leaving behind a September 1 aged 44. Was one of a long club’s first European Cup in 1968. “He was as ing him to tears. widow and 10 children. The high school line of ‘great white hopes’ in the heavy- hard as nails, as tough as teak. I was always BERT TRAUTMANN teacher, who was a US college athlete, weight division in the 1980’s and 90’s but glad I didn’t have to play against him,” Manchester City goalkeeper who played RUGBY UNION broke the record in , Finland in June rarely threatened to fulfil that save when he remarked former team-mate Charlton on on in the 1956 FA Cup final despite having CLIFF MORGAN 1977, but it was to last only a year before it won the WBO world title on points against hearing of his death. fractured his neck, died on July 19 aged 89. Former Wales and British and Irish Lions was bettered by compatriot Henry Rono. 44-year-old George Foreman in 1993 only to A decorated veteran of the Eastern Front in fly-half died on August 29 aged 83. The lose it in his first title defence. Son of a GILMAR AND NILTON SANTOS World War II, who was later captured having diminutive fly half from a mining family in PIETRO MENNEA native Indian Morrison claimed to be the Both members of the outstanding Brazil served in Normandy following D-Day, the Rhondda Valley joined Cardiff straight Italy’s 1980 Olympic 200 metres champi- great nephew of Hollywood legend John side that won the 1958 World Cup and Trautmann was held as a prisoner-of-war from school in 1949 and he went on to win on and long-time world record holder died Wayne and went by the nickname of ‘Duke’ retained the trophy in 1962 died aged 83 until 1948. Trautmann wrote himself into 29 caps for his country between 1951 and on March 21 aged 60 of an as yet unknown as a result. Had numerous run-ins with the and 88 on August 25 and November 23 English football folklore after being injured 1958 and also captain the Lions. Morgan incurable disease. Known as the “Arrow of law and served time. respectively. Gilmar was the goalkeeper diving at the feet of Birmingham City striker was notably one of the heroes of the British the South” and the then world recordhold- who ended his career with 94 caps while Peter Murphy with 17 minutes left of the FA Lions tour of South Africa in 1955 which was er-it would last nearly two decades-he JACOB ‘BABY JAKE’ MATLALA Nilton, capped 75 times, was nicknamed Cup final-he said the impact felt like a ‘plane drawn 2-2. After retiring from rugby, he edged out 100 metres Olympic champion Two-time world champion died aged 51 ‘the Encyclopaedia’ for his deep knowledge crash’-which resulted in five dislocated ver- became well-known as a television broad- Allan Wells in the dying strides of the 200m on December 7. Shortest ever world cham- of tactics. He was also named in FIFA’s team tebrae, one fractured in two, which almost caster with the BBC and his commentary of final in , a Games boycotted by the pion at 4ft 10inches (1.47metres) was WBO of the 20th century. cost him his life. He played on and City won the famous Barbarians victory over the United States over the Soviet invasion of flyweight champion from May 1993- 3-1. “He came to England as a soldier, and mighty All Blacks in 1973 - including the Afghanistan. Competed in a staggering five February 1995 and Light flyweight champi- BRIAN GREENHOFF thus an enemy, but was later a celebrated memorable try by Gareth Edwards-has Olympics though he later confessed he had on from November 1995 to 1997. Former Manchester United and England hero in the country,” commented German entered broadcasting legend. used Human Growth Hormone (HGH) which Apparently was the favourite boxer of for- defender died suddenly aged 60 on May 22. federation president Wolfgang Niersbach. then was not illegal. Paying tribute, Livio mer South African president Nelson Capped 18 times by England he formed a ROBERT SORO Berruti - the Olympic 200m gold winner at Mandela, who died two days before him. reliable central defensive partnership with FORMULA ONE Former France lock known as the ‘lion of the 1960 Games in Rome - said: “He epito- for United under the charis- MARIA DI VILLOTA Swansea’ died aged 90 on April 28. Capped mised resistance, tenacity and suffering.” CRICKET matic managership of Spanish former Formula 1 test driver died 20 times between 1945 and 1949, he was MIKE DENNESS which saw them win the 1977 FA Cup final from natural causes aged 33 on October 11 given the nickname after a towering per- ALAIN MIMOUN Former England captain died aged 72 on beating 2-1 his brother Jimmy in Seville. The daughter of former Formula 1 formance against the Welsh in Swansea, France’s 1956 Olympic marathon champi- April 19 after a long battle with cancer. was also part of the side-having lost the driver Emilio De Villota, she was the first where on a snow-covered pitch on February on died aged 92 on June 27 just a month Remains the only Scotland-born player to 1976 one in a shock defeat to Southampton. Spanish female to enter the sport when she 7, 1948, he inspired his side to their first after his wife Germaine passed away. Born ever win over their hosts in Wales. Ali Mimoun Ould Kacha in Algeria it was thanks to his stubbornness in World War II SHOWJUMPING that he even had a running career. Fighting RAIMONDO D’INZEO for the Free French Forces he was badly Legendary Italian rider who brought the wounded in his left leg by German shelling house down at the Rome Olympics in 1960 during the fight for Monte Cassino in 1944 when he won indvidual gold died aged 88 and an American surgeon recommended it on November 15. Silver Olympic medalist in be amputated but showing the obstinacy 1956 he always competed in his Carabinieri that he was to display in his career he Cavalry uniform and was one half of a formi- refused to permit him to. Eventually a dable fraternal partnership with his elder French surgeon saved his leg and aside brother Piero, who won silver in Rome and from climaxing his career with the gold in is still alive aged 90. Both brothers created Melbourne in sweltering conditions, in what another piece of Olympic history when they was his first attempt at the distance, prior to became the first athletes to compete in that he also won three Olympic silver eight Olympics (1948-76). Raimondo, the medals at 5,000m and 10,000m in the 1948 more impetuous rider of the two, also won and 1952 Games behind the legendary two world individual titles. Czechoslovak Emil Zatopek. SPORTS POLITICS BASEBALL BERTHOLD BEITZ STAN MUSIAL International Olympic Committee vice- ‘Stan the Man’ one of baseball’s greatest president from 1984-88 died aged 99 on hitters and a St. Louis Cardinals icon, died July 30. A keen sailor, shooter and rower on January 19 aged 92. The father of four and a member of the organizing board of played his entire 22-year Major League the tragedy-hit Olympics in 1972, Baseball career with the Cardinals. He was a the German industrialist saved hundreds of 24-time All-Star and a first-ballot Hall of Jews from Nazi persecution during World Fame selection in 1969. Musial won seven War II. Beitz became a manager at an oil National League batting titles, was a three- company in Boryslav, now in Ukraine but time Most Valuable Player and helped St. during World War II part of Nazi-occupied Louis win three World Series titles in the Poland. With a relatively large Jewish popu- 1940s. Musial was the first $100,000 player, lation, Beitz witnessed their persecution, had a ready smile and a knack for playing deportations and murder by the Nazis and the harmonica and would pay unan- still only in his 20s, decided to act along nounced visits to boost the morale of sick with his wife Else, making his company a children in hospitals when the team was on Maria Di Villota refuge. “Thus in August 1942, he extricated the road. 250 Jewish men and women from the trans- captain England, though, other captains Went on to play for Leeds and Rochdale joined the Marussia team in 2012 as a test port train to the Belzec extermination camp BASKETBALL such as Tony Greig have had Scottish where he was player-coach but fell out with driver. However, just four months later De by claiming them as ‘professional workers’,” SERGEI BELOV parentage, leading the team in 19 of his 28 Jimmy after the latter was dismissed as Villota suffered severe injuries, including the the website of Israel’s Yad Vashem Member of the Soviet Union’s 1972 Tests between 1969 and 1975. He went onto manager. “It was a little family argument. It’s loss of her right eye in a crash while testing Holocaust memorial said. Yad Vashem later Olympic gold medal-winning basketball become an ICC match referee and his con- the only one we ever had,” commented at Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire, honoured the couple, designating them as team died on October 3 aged 69. Belov, troversial decision to sanction six Indian Jimmy, though, bad enough for them not to England. Admired for her courage on the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’. who was widely considered one of the best players in Port Elizabeth during the speak for 15 years. day she died she had been due to take part non-American players of all time, scored 20 2001/2002 tour prompted the Indian and in a conference organised by the “What TENNIS points in the epic Olympic final in Munich in South African boards to ban Denness from CON MARTIN Really Matters” foundation promoting JELENA GENCIC 1972 at the height of the Cold War as the officiating in the next match. The ICC Irishman who played in several positions human values and was due to launch her Serbian tennis coach who unearthed the Soviets overcame the United States 51-50. responded by withdrawing Test status from and nicknamed the ‘yellow canary’ whose book titled “Life is a gift” in Madrid a few talent of Novak Djokovic died aged 77 on He also won two world championship titles, the game. appearances for both the days later. June 1. She nurtured Djokovic’s talent when in 1967 and 1974, and four European titles and Northern Ireland prompted a rule he was six years old and with the agree- (1967, 1969, 1971 and 1979). REG SIMPSON change by FIFA died on February 24 aged 89. GOLF KEN VENTURI ment of his parents trained him for five The oldest surviving player to have After Martin’s last appearance for Northern 1964 US Open champion and runner-up years before he left for further coaching in JERRY BUSS played in an England Test match died aged Ireland, his sixth in all while he played 30 in the 1956 Masters who despite having a Germany. Her eye for talent had already Los Angeles Lakers owner, top class pok- 93 on November 22. Simpson, made his first times for the Republic, in a Home severe stammer enjoyed a highly successful been finely-honed as she also coached fel- er player and philanthropist, who trans- class cricket debut in India while on leave International against Wales but also counting broadcasting career for 35 years on US tele- low Grand Slam champions Monica Seles formed the team, when he bought them in from his duties as a World War II pilot, made towards 1950 World Cup qualification, FIFA vision died on May 17 aged 82. Venturi, who and Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic. “Jelena was 1979 on the back of a successful real estate 27 Test appearances for England, the high- ruled that turning out for the two sides could prided himself in having Frank Sinatra as his like my second mother and we were very business, into the glamour franchise of a light of which was an unbeaten 156 against not be repeated. His Gaelic football career best friend, overcame severe dehydration in close. She gave so much knowledge and I revitalized NBA, died on February 18 aged Australia in Melbourne in the final Test of had also come to a controversial end in 1941. sweltering temperatures, at Congressional feel I have a responsibility to carry on that 80 of cancer. Buss, whose son Jim and the 1950-51 Ashes series which inspired When it was discovered by the Gaelic foot- Country Club just outside Washington, to work,” said Djokovic. daughter Jeanie retain control of the fran- England to their first post-War Test victory in ball authorities he was also playing football claim his only major title. “Ken Venturi’s vic- chise, made the Lakers one of the biggest Australia. His test career came to an end in he was banned as soccer was considered a tory in the 1964 US Open remains one of the PETER GRAF draws in Los Angeles with a combination of 1955 having scored 1,401 runs at an aver- garrison sport - one that had its origins in for- greatest moments in the championship’s Coach and manager of daughter Steffi shrewd personnel moves on and off the age of 33.45. mer colonial power England and been 112-year history,” US Golf Association execu- died aged 75 of cancer on November 30. court and a feel for show business glamour. imposed on their then-Irish subjects. tive director Mike Davis said. Disciplinarian-she would apparently feel the The Lakers have the highest payroll in the CYCLING back of his hand if he judged her practice NBA at $100 million, but they were valued PHILIPPE GAUMONT BRUNO METSU GYMNASTICS sessions below par-and thus acquired nick- by Forbes magazine as being worth $1 bil- Talented French cyclist who epitomised French coach best known for leading NOBUYUKI AIHARA name of ‘Papa Merciless’ but his methods lion-second in the NBA only to the New York the culture of doping in the sport in the Senegal into the quarter-finals of the 2002 Japan’s double Olympic champion at the produced results as his daughter went on to Knicks. The Lakers-the first NBA team to 1990’s and early part of this century died World Cup died of cancer aged 59 on 1960 Games died on July 16 of pneumonia dominate the women’s game and win 22 have a dance squad, the Laker Girls-won 10 after lapsing into a coma following a mas- October 14. Instantly recognizable on the aged 79. Aihara won gold on the floor and in Grand Slam events. His claim to an NBA titles a record under the same owner. sive heart attack aged 40 on May 17. touchline with his dapper suits and long the team combined event as he helped American magazine ‘I think we can afford Olympic bronze medalist in the 2000 Games hair, Metsu caused a sensation at the 2002 break the Soviet stranglehold on the sport at the taxes,’ referring to why they stayed in BOXING in team time-trial and winner of prestigious World Cup when Senegal defeated reigning the Rome Games. Aihara, whose son Yutaka Germany came back to haunt him as he was KEN NORTON Ghent-Wevelgem one day race he retired champions France in the opening match. showed the sport flowed in the family genes sentenced to three years and nine months Former boxing champion nicknamed the from the sport in 2004 after confessing to Just months ahead of the World Cup, Metsu by winning bronze in the team event in the in jail for tax fraud in 1997. Fairly chaotic pri- ‘Black Hercules’ and considered one of the habitual doping. Wrote a warts and all book also guided Senegal to their only appear- 1992 Games, had won silver in both events vate life saw him divorce Steffi’s mother and greatest heavyweights of his era, died on ‘Prisoner of doping’ divulging the tricks of ance in the final of the 2002 Africa Cup of in Melbourne and was crowned world cham- marry his daughter’s former babysitter in September 18 of a heart attack aged 70. the dopers and remarked: “I doped so I Nations where they were beaten on penal- pion in the same categories in 1962. The 1999. Norton, who suffered a stroke in 2012, was could survive...but I lost a lot in the process.” ties by Cameroon. “An important personality International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) best known for beating Muhammad Ali in On his enforced retirement he ran first a from French football has left us. He gave the paid a warm tribute: “With him departs a YACHTING 1973, breaking Ali’s jaw in the process and cafe in Amiens and then became manager impression of a man able to convince others trace of Japanese culture which fashioned ANDREW ‘BART’ SIMPSON ended his brilliant career with a record of 42 of a brasserie with 33 employees in the that French football had values. He was an an artistic school that still lasts today Two-time Olympic medal winning wins, seven losses, one draw and 33 knock- northern city of Lens when the Louvre example to follow in his convictions and the through the talent of his worthy successor, yachtsman-gold in in 2008 and silver outs. “They called us handsome. Muhammad opened a branch of their museum there. missions he undertook,” said French Football Kohei Uchimura (the 2012 Olympic champi- in in 2012 - died on May 9 aged 36 they called pretty. But the fairest of them all Extrovert and bon viveur he commented Federation (FFF) president Noel Le Graet. on and triple world champion).” when the Swedish catamaran and America’s Ken Norton,” said fellow heavyweight legend shortly before his death: “I always lived life Cup hopeful capsized in San Francisco Bay. George Foreman in a tribute. ‘Father of the to excess.” ILYA TSYMBALAR HORSE RACING The Briton-nicknamed after “The Simpsons” Year in 1977 one of his sons, Ken Jr. played in Highly-gifted Russian international mid- SIR HENRY CECIL character-started sailing at the age of six, the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys and San FOOTBALL fielder died of a suspected heart attack Legendary horse trainer died on June 11 first in the Laser class before switching to Francisco 49ers winning three successive BILL FOULKES aged 44 on December 28. Tsymbalar was aged 70 after a long battle with cancer. the single-handed class boat in his Super Bowls (1992-94 the first two with the Former Manchester United defender and one of the stars of a glorious Spartak Cecil, who was British champion trainer 10 mid-20s. “Yesterday I lost my closest friend Cowboys). Norton Senior went on to appear a survivor of the 1958 Munich air disaster Moscow squad that won seven titles in the times and trained the winner of the Epsom of over twenty five years, the friendliest and in 20 films but withdrew from blockbuster which killed 23 people including several of 1990s and was renowned for its skillful pass- Derby four times, had a memorable time on kindest man I have ever met,” said Iain Percy, ‘Rocky’ where he was due to play Apollo his team-mates, died aged 81 on November ing reminiscent of Lionel Messi’s present the track over the last three seasons with who was his partner in both medal winning Creed. Humble throughout as exemplified 25. A no-nonsense centreback-only capped Barcelona side. Unlike several of his club- the unbeaten Frankel. Cecil, whose twin exploits.—AFP