■Soccer
Beckham visits ladies' toilet
Soccer superstar David Beckham showed off his famed feminine side during an evening out in Hong Kong -- by twice wandering into the ladies' toilet at a nightclub, a newspaper reported yesterday. The 28-year-old Real Madrid star walked into the women's toilet at the Dragon-i nightclub in Hong Kong on Wednesday night, hours after arriving in the city ahead of an exhibition match yesterday. Night club attendee Tinnie Chow, who was in the toilet at the time, wrote in yesterday's South China Morning Post: "Three of us were standing in line for the loo when the door swung open and in walked David Beckham and two bodyguards. As the guards ushered him into the first available stall, we quickly pointed out he was walking into the women's washroom. Beckham's jaw dropped and he said he didn't know -- and he had used it once already. In the typical manner of an English gentleman he retreated and instead held open the door for me to go first."
■ Motor racing
Canada loses Grand Prix
Canada will lose its Formula One Grand Prix next year because tough legislation banning tobacco advertising, including logos on cars, will come into full effect on Oct. 1, the race's chief executive said on Thursday. Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone's management company sent a letter on Wednesday to chief executive Normand Legault saying Montreal's picturesque race circuit on an island in the St Lawrence River would not be part of next year's calendar. "This letter says that Canada's Grand Prix won't show up on the Formula One world championship 2004 calendar," Legault told a hastily called press conference in Montreal. "This decision seems to be the consequence of the tobacco laws coming into full effect."
■ Basketball
NBA schedule announced
The Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings will once again meet in the final game of the NBA's 116-game pre-season schedule announced on Thursday. The Western Conference rivals played in the final pre-season game last season and were involved in a bench-clearing brawl that resulted in several suspensions. This year's game between the two teams will take place on Oct. 24 in Las Vegas. The Lakers open their exhibition schedule Oct. 7 against the Golden State Warriors in Honolulu and Los Angeles are expected to intensify this pre-season in the wake of Kobe Bryant's legal troubles and with new Lakers Karl Malone and Gary Payton on the floor.
■ Chess
Bologan gains upper hand
Moldovan grandmaster Viorel Bologan stormed ahead in the international chess tournament here, building up his lead to 1.5 points late Wednesday, as the "Tiger of Madras" Viswanathan Anand continued to improve. The 33-year-old Indian, No. 3 in the world ratings and former FIDE world champion, crushed world No. 4 Peter Leko, 23, of Hungary, the official challenger to independent world champion Vladimir Kramnik next October-November. Bologan, 31, who has never won a major tournament, easily beat German grandmaster Arkadi Naiditsch in 36 moves playing white. After suffering two defeats in the first two days of the tourney, Anand overcame Leko despite playing black and is now in third position, notching up his second successive win. He had started his fightback on Monday by beating Naiditsch.
■Golf
Wie crashes out
Michelle Wie, the 13-year-old US golf sensation who is preparing to play against male pros, was an upset victim here on Thursday in the first match-play round at the US Women's Amateur. Hawaiin Wie, who finished second in stroke play at two-under par 140 for 36 holes at Philadelphia Country Club, lost to 19-year-old Maru Martinez of Venezuela 1 up. Wie has taken golf by storm with her 300-yard drives and busy schedule. She shared 15th at the Women's US Open and will play against men in a developmental tour stop next month in Boise, Idaho. The darkness-halted second round plus the third round and quarterfinals was due to be played yesterday with winners reaching today's semifinals to decide tomorrow's finalists. South Korea's Aree Song won the stroke-play competition that decided the 64 golfers for match play and captured her first two matches, ousting both Emily Bastel and Laura Cross by 4 and 3.
■ Soccer
Fans to get free showers
Free showers, cheaper drinks and more toilets are some of the measures German clubs have come up with to persuade fans to attend Bundesliga matches this weekend despite the heatwave sweeping the country. The bad news came from VfL Bochum, with coach Peter Neururer asking the club's faithful supporters to give up beer for Saturday's home game against Hamburg SV. Water will be cheaper in Bochum, a glass costing 1.50 euros instead of the usual 2.50. There will be three times more of it available and a tent will be built outside the stadium with extra toilets. Cologne and Bremen will both provide tents with showers for what promises to be the hottest Bundesliga weekend of all time with temperatures expected to exceed 30℃ at kickoff.
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