Sports briefs
Rohanna 5 shots behind leader
Rachel Rohanna of Waynesburg shot an opening round of 1-under par 71 Friday in the Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship at Battle Creek (Mich.) Country Club.
It is the first tournament on the Symetra Tour since the coronavirus pandemic stopped the sports world.
Rohanna had an wildly erratic round. She birdied two of her first three holes, then bogeyed three of the next four. On her finishing nine holes, Rohanna had two birdies in a three-hole stretch but bogeyed her final hole of the day, which dropped her from 19th on the leaderboard into a tie for 28th.
A trio of golfers, including American Gabrielle Shipley, share the lead at 6-under.
Source: NFL offers opt out for players
NFL training camps are set to open after the league and the players’ union reached agreement on several issues, including future salary cap mechanisms and how players can opt out of the upcoming season because of the coronavirus.
The NFL Players Association’s executive committee and 32 player representatives approved the offers Friday, two people with knowledge of the decisions told the Associated Press.
Players who decide they want to opt out have until Aug. 3 to do so, and they will receive a stipend from the owners, the people said on condition of anonymity because the offer has not been made public. The amount of the stipend will be $350,000 for medical opt outs and $150,000 for voluntary opt outs.
That agreement eliminated one major obstacle to a full opening of training camps next week. Already, the sides had agreed to cancel all preseason games, as well as to a reduction in the number of roster spots in training camp from 90 to 80 – though teams will have until Aug. 16 to get down to 80.
Canadian GP canceled
Formula One races in Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States have been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic and three others have been added.
F1 says the Eifel Grand Prix will host a race at the iconic Nürburgring in Germany on Oct. 11. That will be followed by the Portuguese GP in Portimão two weeks later and the Emilia-Romagna GP in Italy on Nov. 1.
The U.S. GP was initially scheduled for late October. Brazil and Mexico were then to host races in November.
Canada was already postponed from its mid-June date. Promoter Francois Dumontier said the Grand Prix had been tentatively rescheduled for Oct. 9-11 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve at Montreal’s Parc Jean-Drapeau, but the turning point came when local public health authorities informed promoters and Formula One that no fans would be allowed entry.
Kenyan runner Jipcho dies at 77
Ben Jipcho, a Kenyan runner who sacrificed his hopes of winning a medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics to help teammate Kip Keino beat American rival Jim Ryun in the 1,500 meters, died Friday. He was 77.
The Kenyan track federation said Jipcho died early Friday morning and called him one of the “trailblazers” of the country’s rise to running greatness.
Jipcho died in Kenya’s high-altitude town of Eldoret, the place that has produced countless Olympic and world champion distance runners over the last half-century. And he died on the same day that Ryun was to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
Jipcho won a silver medal in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 1972 Munich Olympics – also behind Keino – but was remembered most for the role he played as the “rabbit” in the 1,500 final at the 1968 Games. Together, the two Kenyans outfoxed Ryun, who was the world-record holder at the time and the big favorite for gold.