A 1st: Saudi stadiums open for women
Saudi women were allowed into a sports stadium for the first time Friday to watch a soccer match between two local teams — though they were segregated in the stands from the maleonly crowd with designated seating in the socalled “family section.”
The move was the first of Saudi Arabia’s social reforms planned for this year to ease restrictions on women, spearheaded by the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32. The kingdom has also announced that starting in June women will be allowed to drive, lifting the world’s only ban on female drivers.
More than just an incremental step toward greater rights, the presence of women in the sports stadium underscored a wider effort to integrate women in society and grant them more public visibility in a country where gender segregation is widely enforced and where most women cover their faces and hair with black veils and don loose-flowing black robes, known as abayas.
The first stadium to open its doors to women was in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. The stadium in the capital, Riyadh, will open to women on Saturday, followed by the western city of Dammam on Thursday.
College football: Quarterback Jacob Eason is leaving national runnerup Georgia, an expected decision after he lost the starting job to freshman Jake Fromm. On Twitter, Eason thanked the Bulldogs for “an incredible two years.” He says he’ll “miss suiting up in red and black, but Athens will always be a place I can call home.” He didn’t indicate where he intends to play next.
UConn coach Randy Edsall hired former Chicago Bears assistant coach John Dunn to be his offensive coordinator. Dunn replaces Rhett Lashlee, who left after one year on the job to take the same position at SMU under former Cal coach Sonny Dykes.
Marcus Lattimore, a running back drafted by the 49ers in 2013 who never played in the NFL because of a knee injury suffered in college, is returning to South Carolina as director of player development and life skills.
Boxing: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (39-0, 38 KOs) is set to fight Luis Ortiz (28-0, 24 KOs) on March 3 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Wilder is coming off a first-round knockout of Bermane Stiverne in November. Wilder’s bout will be his seventh title defense.
Soccer: The Bundesliga resumed after the winter break with Bayern Munich extending its lead over second-place Schalke to 14 points with a 3-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen behind goals from Javi Martinez, Franck Ribery and James Rodriguez.