■Boxing
Tyson denies rape rap
Mike Tyson hasn't lost his penchant for saying the outrageous. In a television interview scheduled for broadcast today, Tyson again denied he raped Desiree Washington in 1991 in an Indianapolis hotel room. But he said the burden of being labeled a convicted rapist makes him want to do it now. "I just hate her guts. She put me in that state, where I don't know," Tyson said. "I really wish I did now. But now I really do want to rape her." Tyson made the comments during a recent interview in Miami Beach with Greta Van Susteren, who was taking a look back at the circumstances of Tyson's 1992 trial that ended with him convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison. He served three years of the sentence before being released on parole. A call for comment to Tyson's adviser, Shelly Finkel, was not immediately returned. The interview will be shown tonight on the Fox network.
■ Baseball
Molestation victims settle
Seven men who said they were molested as bat boys at the Boston Red Sox spring training camp settled their lawsuit against the team for an undisclosed amount. The men were seeking more than US$3 million in a 2001 federal lawsuit. The case was scheduled for trial in the fall, but US District Court records said a settlement was reached and the case was dismissed in December. Red Sox attorney Daniel Goldberg declined to comment on the case. Attorneys for the defendents could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. Court records say the terms of the settlement are confidential. Former clubhouse manager Donald James Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty in May 2002 to reduced charges of attempted sexually battery on a child under 12 and paid four of the men US$10,000 each in restitution.
■ Athletics
Elana Meyer questioned
Top South African runner Elana Meyer will face a hearing next month after a backup analysis confirmed she tested positive for excessive amounts of caffeine. Meyer, silver medalist at 10,000m at the 1992 Olympics, was suspended from competition after failing a drug test at a 10,000-meter race in Bali, Indonesia, on Feb. 2. Her B sample also came back positive for caffeine earlier this week. Meyer will appear before the Athletics South Africa doping commission on June 12. "If she is found guilty, she will receive a public warning," Athletics South Africa chief Banele Sindani said Wednesday. Meyer will also forfeit her US$3,000 prize money from the race, he said. Caffeine is classified as a stimulant.
■ Rugby
Barbarian beat Scotland
The Barbarians defeated Scotland 24-15 on Wednesday with tries from Scott Staniforth, Darren Edwards, Ollie Le Roux and Aurelien Rougerie. Argentine Felipe Contepomi added two conversions for the winners, who defeated England 49-36 on Sunday. The Barbarians face Wales on Saturday. James McLaren and Glenn Metcalfe scored the tries for Scotland, which trailed 24-8 at halftime. Australian wing Staniforth scored after just two minutes as he cruised in for the opening try with Contepomi adding the conversion. Scotland tried to rally in the second half but its finishing couldn't match the build-up work. The Scots broke through in the 67th when Metcalfe scored of a quickly taken Mike Blair penalty.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier