Since several Icelandic pension funds are still working on their annual results, the association said no final 2019 return figures were yet available.“However, it is clear that the overall performance was very good, in both home and overseas markets,” it said.Foreign equities were the strongest performing asset class, the group said, adding that domestic bonds had also yielded very good returns during the year.“The main driving forces there were falling real interest rates and a falling inflation premium, which contributed to rising bond value,” it said.Total Icelandic pension fund assets now stood at more than ISK4.9trn (€36bn), amounting to more than 160% of GDP, the association said.Earlier this month, Icelandic pension funds Frjálsi and Almenni announced they had produced high returns of 13.7% and 14.5%, respectively, in 2019 on the strongest performing investment options they offered to scheme members.Meanwhile, the country’s fourth largest pension fund, Birta, has reported its mixed portfolio option (Blönduð leið) – which contains a high proportion of foreign equities – ended 2019 with a 14.9% real return, after bounding back from a 1.2% loss in 2018. Iceland’s pension funds returned 11% on average last year, according to an early estimate from the country’s pensions industry group, making a strong comeback from the previous year’s slim profits.The Icelandic Pension Funds Association (Landssamtök lífeyrissjóða) said it estimated the real return on pension savings for Icelanders to be well over 11% on average for 2019, based on the weighted average return on the total portfolio of the funds.The association said: “This is a major turnaround from 2018 when the net real yield was 1.95% on average and much lower than 2017 when the comparable figure was 5.38%.”The lobby group sourced this returns data for the two previous years to the Icelandic FSA. It also noted that according to the regulator, in 2018 Iceland had been only one of five countries internationally to have shown positive annual pension returns. read more

Victory over Swansea, coupled with Tottenham’s defeat at Norwich, means there is a six-point gap – effectively seven with Liverpool’s vastly superior goal difference – between the fourth-placed Reds and their nearest rivals for a top-four spot. They remain four behind leaders Chelsea, but striker Daniel Sturridge’s rich vein of form, scoring in his last eight consecutive league games to take his tally to 18, and the enduring quality of Luis Suarez, who has netted 23 league goals, mean they are confident of outscoring most teams. “We just need now to keep calm and do what we have been doing, if we continue that we will get the same results,” Toure told City Talk 105.9. “There are going to be some tough games; Southampton (this Saturday) is a tough place to go but I think we can score goals and defend well as a team and we are working hard.” Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet also believes a sensible and composed approach will pay dividends as the season enters its final three months. “We are in a good position at the moment but with 11 games to go there are still a lot of things that can happen,” he told the Liverpool Echo. “We need to stay calm and just focus on our next game at Southampton. We won’t be thinking about what’s happened against them in the past (losing their last three visits). “The gaffer gives everyone confidence. When you step on to the pitch you know that he’s behind you and supporting you. “Everyone is trying to do their job the best they can and we need to keep doing that until the end of the season.” The Reds’ leaky backline is coming under increasing scrutiny after Sunday’s 4-3 home win against Swansea made it seven goals conceded in their last three matches. Liverpool have kept just two clean sheets in their last 11 games stretching back to mid-December but Toure, who has had his fair share of recent defensive calamities, believes they still have a grip on their situation. Press Association Centre-back Kolo Toure insists now is not the time to allow criticism of Liverpool’s defensive vulnerability affect their run-in. read more

Press Association Swansea have failed to score in their last three games, against Watford and Everton in the Barclays Premier League and at Hull in their midweek Capital One Cup defeat following a promising start in which they took eight points from their first four league matches. Bafetimbi Gomis (four) and Andre Ayew (three) are the only two Swansea players to have scored in the league this season but manager Monk remains confident that other players will soon be hitting the goal trail. Garry Monk insists goals will be shared around his Swansea side as they seek to end a barren scoring run at Southampton on Saturday. “I’m sure you’ll see a lot more scorers as the season goes on,” Monk said. “I think the same was said about Gylfi (Sigurdsson) and (Wilfried) Bony here last season but a team contributes to goals, not just one player. “You would love everyone to score but it doesn’t really matter as long as the team are scoring and we’re in a position to win games. “Of course, we work on things for other people to contribute but to be able to score a goal you need the team to play the right way. “You’ve got to get the ball in those positions for others to score and that’s very much a team contribution. “We’ve been doing that fantastically well this season and we’re only going to get better looking at the players in training.” Monk’s philosophical approach to Swansea going 294 minutes without scoring may be explained by statistics suggesting they have not had the rub of green in front of goal. Of Swansea’s 85 attempts on goal 35 have been on target, the highest percentage in the Premier League. They have also hit the woodwork four times, the most in the top flight. But Iceland international Sigurdsson, who finished third on the Premier League assists table last season with 10, has only one assist so far this term and has yet to open his goal account from seven games. “Gylfi hasn’t contributed those things as much as he would like but he’s still making a big contribution to the team,” Monk said. “His work ethic, his discipline with and without the ball and his link-up play are very good and he’s not in the team to score goals. “If he can do that great, but the real product of his game is getting in positions to assist. “I’ve spoken to him about that but the team is attacking with more variation this season. “Last season, especially early on, we attacked more through Gylfi and Bony. But we’ve spread it out a little bit more this year as we have more quality through the squad and more ways to attack.” read more

The long-serving Blues centre-half was a pivotal presence in the Blues’ title triumph last season, playing every minute, but has been part of a backline that has looked fragile this term. He was memorably taken off at half-time in the defeat to Manchester City after a poor 45 minutes trying to contain Sergio Aguero, leading some to assume he has lost some of the edge that made him one of the league’s best defenders. But in an interview with the Daily Mail, the 34-year-old said of his detractors: “That’s lazy, isn’t it? You get to a stage and people say ‘that’s wrong’ but they don’t back it up. “You know your legs aren’t gone. It takes a little bit longer to recover but when you’re ready and the adrenaline pumps in, you are fine. I’ve never been quick.” On being substituted at the Etihad Stadium in August, Terry added: ” Listen, you take it in your stride. I was more shocked than anything. But I took it and went out to watch the second half. I’ve got that mentality where you go in the next day, work your socks off and think to yourself ‘right, I’ll show you’. “There is no point moaning, sulking or staying in the dressing room. That’s not me. I’ve got to where I am in my career by fronting things up. So I did and I knew, sooner or later, he’d (Mourinho) put me back in.” Terry retained his place in the starting line-up the following week against West Brom only to be sent off, and his form remains patchy. His struggles have coincided with Chelsea’s dreadful start to the defence of their title, with the Blues currently 14th, 14 points adrift of leaders City. Terry, though, still has plenty of faith in Mourinho, who for now still has the backing of the club’s board. Terry added: “His stability is massive for the club going forward. What the club have done is set a precedent and said ‘he’s the man to take us forward’. He will do. This squad of players won the league last season. There is no difference. It’s a bad run of form. “It’s not different. The league table says it’s different but it isn’t. If you look for stuff (that is wrong) you will find it. You could sit there after a game and find a million things. I’d prefer to say ‘s*** result, let’s just move on’. The quality is there, everything is there.” Chelsea captain John Terry thinks his critics are “lazy” to assume he lacks the pace to remain a top-class defender in the Barclays Premier League. Press Association read more

In an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus while not leaving Florida residents without options to obtain food, governor Ron DeSantis has ordered restaurants to only offer pick-up and delivery options to their customers.The executive order was signed early Friday and is slated to remain in place until  May 8th.Under this executive order, restaurants will still be able to offer all of their food and beverage options including alcohol to go, however, those who choose to order an alcoholic beverage will be subjected to providing ID when picking up their order.The executive order also closes all gyms and fitness centers in Florida with the exception of fitness centers in residential buildings, fire and police stations, those in single-occupant office buildings, and gyms that have a maximum capacity of 10 people or less in hotels.For the latest on the coronavirus, click here. read more

For all the Latest Sports News News, Other Sports News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The 13-member Indian contingent also comprises in-form Sameer Verma besides witnessing the return of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who was out of action due to an injury, and will feature in the men’s doubles event along with Chirag Shetty.India squad:Men: Kidambi Srikanth, Sameer Verma, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Manu Atri, B Sumeeth Reddy, Pranaav Jerry Chopra.Women: P V Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Ashwini Ponnappa, N Sikki Reddy, Poorvisha S Ram, J Meghana. New Delhi: Olympic medallists P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal along with Kidambi Srikanth will lead a strong Indian contingent at the 2019 Sudirman Cup mixed team championship, to be played in Nanning, China from May 19 to 26.Four-time World Championships medallist Sindhu won a silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics while Saina won a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics.       Srikanth is currently ranked eighth in the world among the men’s singles shuttlers.            India have been seeded eighth in this edition of the tournament. Last year at Gold Coast, Australia, India had reached the quarterfinals. India have been placed in tough Group D along side hosts China and Malaysia and will need to finish in top two in the league stage to reach the knock-out stage.India had defeated Malaysia in the mixed team format to win the Commonwealth Games gold in Gold Coast last year and the absence of former world number one Lee Chong Wei is a good news for the contingent. read more

In a busy opening week of the 2019-20 season, the West Genesee boys swim team would compete twice, claiming victory on both occasions.It started for the Wildcats last Tuesday night when it hosted Weedsport, with Alex Shuron leading the way as WG earned a 100-86 victory over the Warriors.Shuron went one minute, 58.67 seconds to prevail in the 200-yard freestyle before going to the 100 backstroke and taking that race in 1:02.38. Keegan Scharoun, in addition to winning the 100 freestyle in 53.93 seconds, teamed with Cameron Chao, Dan Lounsbery and Ryan McMahon to take the 200 medley relay in 1:50.92.Chao went 2:25.45 to prevail in the 200 individual medley as McMahon was victorious in the 500 freestyle in 5:11.61. Justin Byrne earned 275.55 points to edge David Puma (246.95 points) in diving as Scharoun, Nate Long, Chase Foresti and Tom Parisi swam the 400 freestyle relay in 3:55.33.On Friday night, WG hosted Fulton, and here earned enough points to clinch the meet with four events to go on the way to defeating the Red Raiders 95-91. McMahon, Shauron, Shuron and Foresti opened by going 1:44.36 in the 200 medley relay. Then Shuron claimed two individual races, winning the 200 IM in 2:13.14 and the 100 freestyle in 53.07 seconds.Scharoun tore to a time of 58.21 seconds in the 100 backstroke after winning the 50 freestyle in 23.90 seconds. McMahon would swim the 200 freestyle in 1:55.02 and then win the 500 freestyle in 5:11.46.Puma got the best of the diving competition here, with 326.40 points to Byrne’s 257.20 and Bryan Reichert’s 257.20.In all, the Wildcats would have its first three meets at home as a talented Baldwinsville side visits on Wednesday night for WG’s lone competition next week.Share this:FacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditComment on this Story Tags: swimmingWest Genesee read more

A ninth-inning USC comeback came up short when junior Joe De Pinto struck out with the bases loaded, and the Trojans lost the rubber game of a three-game Pac-10 series against the Oregon State Beavers, 4-3.On base· Sophomore Alex Sherrod had two hits in Saturday’s series finale against the Oregon State Beavers and scored one of USC’s runs. – Nathaniel Gonzalez | Daily Trojan In his first start of the season, the No. 21 Beavers’ Sam Gaviglio earned the victory, pitching five and one-third innings, giving up two runs on four hits and striking out four. Kraig Sitton, who struck out De Pinto to end the game, earned his second save of the season.USC (14-14, 2-4) sophomore ace Andrew Triggs took the loss. He went seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits with six  strikeouts.The Beavers (18-6, 2-1) jumped on the board quickly in the first inning on a rare two-run inside the park home run. After Adalberto Santos led off the game with a bunt single, Michael Miller hit a line drive toward the left field wall that got lost in the tarp. The umpires ruled that the ball was still in play, despite Trojan sophomore left fielder Matt Foat throwing his hands in the air to signify a ground-rule double. Miller continued to race around the bases until he touched home plate, giving Oregon State the early 2-0 advantage.The Beavers tacked on another run in the frame on Carter Bell’s RBI groundout, giving OSU a 3-0 lead before USC came to bat. Triggs settled down, however, and shut down OSU for the rest of his outing.USC began its attempt at a comeback in the bottom of the second inning, when senior Keith Castillo and sophomore Alex Sherrod, who both collected two hits on the afternoon, led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Senior Mike O’Neill drove in a run on an RBI groundout, and Sherrod scored later in the inning on a Gaviglio wild pitch, cutting the deficit to one.The Trojans threatened again in the seventh inning, loading the bases with two outs, but sophomore Kevin Roundtree hit a hard groundout to first to end the rally.After the Beavers added an insurance run in the top of the ninth, USC loaded the bases again in the bottom of the inning. Sophomore pinch hitter Garrett Houts worked a two-out walk to make the score 4-3, but Sitton struck out De Pinto on a 1-2 pitch to end the game and the series for the Trojans.USC’s lone victory of the series was Friday’s 8-2 win. USC sophomore Ben Mount pitched six innings, allowing two runs, four hits and racking up seven strikeouts. OSU’s Tanner Robles took the loss for the Beavers, pitching four and one-third innings in front of a shaky defense that committed six errors.After OSU cut the lead to 4-2 in the top half of the seventh, the Trojans responded with four runs in the bottom of the frame to put the game out of reach. USC sophomore first baseman Ricky Oropesa, who drove in four runs in the contest, hit his Pac-10-leading ninth homerun of the season in the frame.Saturday’s defeat marked the second straight Pac-10 series the Trojans have lost this season. With the victory, OSU won its first series at Dedeaux Field since 2004.The Trojans host Cal State Bakersfield on Wednesday at       6:30 p.m. before continuing conference play against California next weekend. read more

Associated Press Television News LIVE TV COMMENT FOLLOW US First Published: 10th November, 2019 11:27 IST Last Updated: 10th November, 2019 11:27 IST Runner’s Abuse Allegations Embolden Other Female Athletes Former teen running star Mary Cain’s account this week of alleged physical and emotional abuse at the recently disbanded Nike Oregon Project is prompting more top athletes to come forward. Written By WATCH US LIVE Track and field is facing a painful and public reckoning with the treatment of some female athletes. Former teen running star Mary Cain’s account this week of alleged physical and emotional abuse at the recently disbanded Nike Oregon Project is prompting more top athletes to come forward.Amy Yoder Begley, a 10,000-meter runner, said Friday she was told she had the “biggest butt on the starting line.” Kara Goucher’s husband said the Olympian endured “disgusting” comments from coaches. Cain said the all-male staff told her the way to get faster was to get thinner and thinner.Nike says it’s investigating, but the cascade of allegations that have followed Oregon Project director Alberto Salazar’s four-year doping ban have called new attention to the emphasis on weight restrictions and emotional abuse. “It’s depressing, but I’m also encouraged that this message is getting out,” Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, medical director of the female athlete program at Boston Children’s Hospital, said Saturday. “A lot of these athletes have been really shy to share their stories.” Questions about Salazar’s methods with his top U.S. runners had swirled for years before the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found him guilty last month of conducting experiments with supplements and testosterone that were bankrolled and supported by Nike.But Cain’s plaintive story of harassment and abuse while she was part of Salazar’s training group, which she joined as a 17-year-old phenomenon in 2013, has emboldened other former Nike Oregon Project athletes to share their stories. In a New York Times video essay, Cain, now 23, says: “I was emotionally and physically abused by a system designed by Alberto and endorsed by Nike.”Cain said she was harangued by the staff, which had no certified nutritionist or certified sports psychologist, to lose weight and was publicly humiliated when she didn’t hit targets. She said she stopped having her period for three years and lost so much bone density she broke five bones. She said she started cutting herself and having suicidal thoughts before leaving the program in 2016. Salazar, who has denied any involvement in doping, issued a statement to The Oregonian newspaper on Friday saying: “I never encouraged her, or worse yet, shamed her, to maintain an unhealthy weight.”Nike said in a statement these are “deeply troubling allegations which have not been raised by Mary or her parents before. Mary was seeking to rejoin the Oregon Project and Alberto’s team as recently as April of this year and had not raised these concerns as part of that process.” The sportswear giant added it will “take the allegations extremely seriously and will launch an immediate investigation to hear from former Oregon Project athletes.” They’re already talking.Four-time Olympian Shalane Flanagan, who retired from competitive running last month to become a coach with the Nike Bowerman Track Club, tweeted to Cain that “I had no idea it was this bad.” Flanagan, the 2017 New York City Marathon champion, is a longtime Nike runner but was never part of the Oregon Project. “I’m so sorry … that I never reached out to you when I saw you struggling. I made excuses to myself as to why I should mind my own business. We let you down. I will never turn my head again,” Flanagan tweeted.Yoder Begley, who now coaches the Atlanta Track Club, said she was kicked out of Salazar’s group after placing sixth in the 10,000 meters at the 2011 national championships. “I was told I was too fat and ‘had the biggest butt on the starting line.’ This brings those painful memories back,” the 2008 Olympian said. Goucher, a former Oregon Project runner who helped provide evidence for USADA’s case against Salazar, said on Twitter “the culture was unbearable.”Her husband, Adam Goucher, who also ran for the group, tweeted that after she placed fifth in the 2011 Boston Marathon in a personal best of 2 hours, 24 minutes — one of the fastest times for an American woman that year, and six months after having a child — Salazar and a sports psychologist told her mother and sister she needed to lose her baby weight if she wanted to be fast again. Adam Goucher said his own weight was an issue while he trained under Salazar. “Maybe now some of you can see why I had so much anger when we left,” he wrote.Ackerman, the Boston sports medicine specialist, is calling on Nike to fund research into healthy and medically sound training in the same way the NFL has started pouring money into concussion studies. “There are so many great opportunities for Nike to be a leader in this,” she said. SUBSCRIBE TO US read more

The participant adverse within the PCR check, however a viral load was detected that may stop him from working together with his colleagues. The Venezuelan can be subjected to new exams within the coming days.Herrera is the third recognized positive after testing the soccer gamers. Earlier than his, these of the athletic Lodi and the reasonable Remiro met. 9 gamers on Simeone’s group even have antibodies to the illness, though they’re coaching as a result of they’re now not thought of to be contagious. The Venezuelan from Granada Yangel Herrera is the third positive for LaLiga coronavirus. It was detected within the serological check, though the illness is passing asymptomatically. Because the aim of the Actual Sociedad Remiro, he must spend just a few extra days of isolation earlier than returning to work. read more