■ Basketball
Lakers beat Pacers
Shaquille O'Neal scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half and the Los Angeles Lakers overpowered the Indiana Pacers 99-77 on Sunday night in a matchup of the teams with the NBA's best records. The Lakers (14-3) forced 23 turnovers and limited the Pacers (14-3) to 39.1 percent shooting. The victory was the sixth straight and ninth in 10 games for the Lakers and extended their regular-season home winning streak to a Los Angeles franchise-record 25, including 10 this season. The previous record of 24 was set 15 years ago. The loss snapped the Pacers' eight-game winning streak and was their first setback in eight road games. Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher added 12 points each and Karl Malone had 11 points and 15 rebounds in 31 minutes for the Lakers. Al Harrington led Indiana with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Jermaine O'Neal added 14 points for the Pacers. Ron Artest was held to six points and five rebounds.
■ Soccer
Eriksson dismisses rumors
England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson on Sunday dismissed a report he had been offered an ?18 million (US$29 million) four-year deal to take over at Chelsea. He also declined to talk about an extension to his current England contract. In Lisbon to discover that England had been drawn in the same Euro 2004 group as defending champion France, Eriksson joked about the latest report linking him with Chelsea. "How much? I think I should sign at once," the Swede said when he was told about the story. "No, I have not heard anything about that." Eriksson, whose contract with England goes until the 2006 World Cup, has been linked with the job at Stamford Bridge since he had lunch with new Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and the Russian's agent three months ago. The former Benfica, Sampdoria and Lazio coach has also said he would like to return to club management when he ends his involvement with England.
■ Soccer
Milan releases Rivaldo
European champions AC Milan have released Brazilian World Cup winner Rivaldo from his contract, leaving him free to find a new club when the transfer market re-opens. Milan said in a statement yesterday that they had ended the contract, which had another 18 months to run, by "common accord." A similar arrangement, which means the Serie A joint leaders will not be able to ask for a transfer fee for the player, was agreed in September before the 31-year-old forward had a change of heart and decided to stay with the club. "We thank Rivaldo for the contribution he gave to the winning of the Champions League, the Italian Cup and the European Super Cup and wish him all our luck for the continuation of his extraordinary career," the club said the statement.
■ Rugby League
Triumphant coach sacked
A week after returning from a three-test series sweep over Britain, Australian rugby league coach Chris Anderson was sacked by the Cronulla Sharks of the National Rugby League. Anderson was contracted as head coach for next season with an option of a further two more years if the Sharks make the finals next year. "The board has resolved to terminate my employment with the Sharks," Anderson said yesterday. "I am bitterly disappointed. I was committed to seeing out my contract with the Sharks. I put my case to the board tonight but unfortunately the board was not persuaded. I feel like I have not been given a fair go."
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