Bees swarm junior game in Brazil
Reuters - Tuesday 29 March 2011, 00:13
RIO DE JANEIRO - A swarm of bees forced the referee to halt a
junior match in Brazil.
Referee Andrea Amorim was one of the principal targets of
the bees that swarmed onto the pitch about half an hour into the
game, a curtain-raiser for the professional seniors in a
Pernambuco state championship match on Sunday.
"At first, I thought it might be some kind of ploy by our
opponents (to get the match suspended) since we were losing
1-0," said coach Sergio China whose Nautico side were playing
away to Ypiranga-PE in Santa Cruz do Capiperibe.
"But when the referee dived to the ground I saw it was
really serious. She was the most attacked, perhaps because of
her (yellow) shirt," China was quoted as saying by local media
Globo on their sports website.
"We didn't get an explanation (for the bee attack) but we'd
only have tried to find out why if the game had been cancelled,"
said China, adding none of his players were stung.
Amorin resumed the match and China's team hit back to win
3-1.