■ Soccer
Thomas Linke gets banned
Bayern Munich defender Thomas Linke has been banned for four games by the German soccer federation for elbowing Schalke's midfielder Niels Oude Kamphuis in Saturday's 2-0 Bundesliga loss. Linke received a red card for his blow and the federation issued the penalty Monday. The loss dropped Bayern six points behind leader Stuttgart. Line will miss games against Borussia Dortmund, Munich 1860, FC Cologne and Werder Bremen.
■ Auto racing
Brack gets more surgery
Kenny Brack will have a second operation on his back today, which he broke three weeks ago in a horrific crash at Texas Motor Speedway. The former IRL champion and Indianapolis 500 winner is expected to make a full recovery within about six months. "I'm coming along pretty good, considering what we went through in Texas," Brack said Monday from the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana. "I'm moving about every day, doing lots of rehab, regaining my strength. It's great to see progress every day." Brack also broke his thigh, breastbone and both ankles when his race car made contact with another car, spun into the air and crashed in a shower during the season-ending race Oct. 12. Tuesday's surgery will involve placement of a bracket on his spine, and probably some bone fusion, to stabilize the back, Dr. Robert Gregori said.
■ Soccer
Jody Morris gets cleared
Jody Morris has been cleared by Leeds United to return to training even though he remains under police investigation in connection with two alleged sexual assaults. Leeds said Monday that the midfielder, who has been suspended or on leave for nearly a month, had fulfilled the terms of unspecified disciplinary measures brought against him by the club. He is to resume training Tuesday. "Disciplinary proceedings against Jody Morris were concluded this morning in accordance with the procedures set out in his contract of employment," a club statement said. "It should be noted that these proceedings did not relate to matters forming the subject of the on-going police investigation." Morris, who moved to Leeds from Chelsea over the summer, was suspended on Oct. 9 by the club for two weeks pending an internal investigation after he was arrested and released on bail without charge in connection with an alleged sexual assault on a 20-year-old woman. On Oct. 22, he was released on bail in connection with a second allegation of sexual assault. Two days later the club announced he was taking a 10-day leave of absence.
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