■ Boxing
Police arrest Joe Frazier
Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier was arrested Friday and charged with assaulting a woman. The victim was described in police documents as the mother of Frazier's son, department spokesman Jim Pauley said. The 44-year-old woman was not seriously injured and refused medical treatment, police said. The 60-year-old boxing great was awaiting arraignment on charges of simple assault and reckless endangerment, police said. The 60-year-old Frazier was the world champion from 1970 to 1973, and fought Muhammad Ali in three classic heavyweight bouts, winning once and losing twice. He was also the heavyweight gold medalist at the 1964 Olympics.
■ Auto racing
Busch beat the best
Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and IRL star Helio Castroneves of Brazil finished sixth and IRL champion Scott Dixon of New Zealand was eighth in the season-opening 12-car International Race of Champions Series on Friday. Ryan Newman squeezed past fellow NASCAR driver and defending IROC champion Kurt Busch 100m from the finish line to win the 40-lap, 160-kilometer event on the banked 4km oval at Daytona International Speedway. Castroneves managed to finish in the top half despite being penalized to the back of the field for passing under the yellow line eight laps from the end. Newman will go into Texas Motor Speedway on April 2 -- the second of four IROC races this season -- holding a one-point (21-20) lead over Busch. The winner in the series sponsored for the first time this season by Crown Royal will get US$1 million, while the rest of the drivers each receive US$80,000.
■ Luge
Germany wins doubles
Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch posted the two fastest times Saturday as Germany won the men's doubles event at the luge World Championships in Nagano, Japan. Leitner clocked a time of 49.279 at Nagano Spiral while Resch had a run of 49.651 for a combined time of 1:38.930. Andre Florschuetz and Torsten Wustlich, also of Germany, were second with a time of 1:39.274 while Americans Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin were third in 1:39.280. Silke Kraushaar gave Germany its second victory of the day when she won the women's singles title with a time of 1:39.611. Germany also won the team event on Friday. Barbara Niedernhuber was second in 1:39.653 while Sylke Otto was third with a time of 1:39.860 as Germany made a clean sweep of the podium. American Ashley Hayden finished sixth with a time of 1:40.450.
■ Basketball
Manute Bol charged
Former NBA center Manute Bol was charged with hitting his daughter, cutting her lip and interfering with a police officer. Bol also was injured and needed medical treatment, West Hartford Police Captain Lori Coppinger said. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. The hospital, citing federal privacy laws, declined to say on Friday if Bol was a patient. Bol, 43, was arrested early Wednesday, police said. He was in court Thursday and is to return on Feb. 26. He also was charged with assault.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB