■Cycling
Arvesen wins in Italy
Norway's Kurt Asle Arvesen won a three-way sprint Tuesday to take the 10th stage of the Giro d'Italia while third-place Gilberto Simoni snatched the pink jersey from Stefano Garzelli, edging the fellow-Italian by just two seconds in the overall standings. Simoni, of the Saeco team, preceded Garzelli by 25 seconds at the finish line and added an eight-second bonus from third place. Simoni, a Giro winner in 2001 and a top favorite for this year's title, had started Tuesday's stage with a gap of 31 seconds from Garzelli. Arvesen, of Team Fakta, outsprinted Italy's Paolo Tiralongo and Simoni at the finish line following a tough, hilly 202km course from Montecatini Terme to Faenza, in central Italy.
■ Horse racing
Dope linked to shampoo
A top Hong Kong horse trainer ridiculed a doping charge against him after officials found a banned substance in a shampoo handed out freely by track veterinarians, a newspaper reported yesterday. Trainer Ivan Allan attacked The Hong Kong Jockey Club's chief veterinary surgeon, Dr. Keith Watkins, for saying a horse tested positive for the diuretic Isosorbide and saying that the drug could not have come from anything used by club vets, the South China Morning Post reported. The horse, Cheers Hong Kong, was scratched from a race Feb. 23 as a result, but Allan complained that the diuretic is contained in a skin-rash shampoo for horses, called Imaverol, handed out by Watkins' department, the newspaper said. "Sadly, his expertise did not know that the diuretic was spelt ... S-H-A-M-P-O-O and freely administered by his department," Allan was quoted as saying.
■ Football
Williams asks for police files
Jayson Williams' lawyers have requested personnel files on dozens of New Jersey state troopers, saying examples of racial profiling or bias would be relevant at the former NBA star's manslaughter trial. In court documents filed Tuesday, the defense also asked a judge to dismiss charges against Williams or, failing that, move his trial out of Hunterdon County because of an "avalanche of publicity." The filings include a request for records on the type of shotgun involved in the shooting death of limousine driver Costas Christofi on Feb. 14 last year, as well as an attempt to throw out testimony from a prosecution witness on Williams' blood-alcohol content at the time of the shooting. Williams, 35, is accused of recklessly handling the shotgun that killed Christofi. He could face nearly 55 years in prison if convicted on all charges, the most serious of which is aggravated manslaughter.
Agencies
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but