■ Horse Racing
Best Mate makes history
Best Mate joined horse racing's superstars on Thursday when he became the first horse since Arkle 38 years ago to win the prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup three years in a row. On the 40th anniversary of Arkle's first victory, the 9-year-old gelding won the three-and-a-quarter mile chase by half-a-length over Sir Rembrant. Harbour Pilot was third. Now bookmakers are offering odds of just 5-4 that a gelding that's never been out of the first two in 19 races and has won almost <<1 million pounds>> (US$1.82 million) for owner Jim Lewis, will go for four Gold Cup triumphs. "I don't think my nerves will take another year," said trainer Henrietta Knight. "But we're already planning, as from tomorrow morning, for next year."
■ Olympics
Record number to compete
A record 202 nations, including Iraq and Afghanistan, will send teams to this summer's Athens Olympics. The IOC said Thursday it had received positive responses from every recognized national Olympic committee to the invitations sent out last year for the Aug. 13 to 29 games. The previous record was set at the 2000 Sydney Games when 199 recognized national committees took part, as well as athletes from East Timor competing under the Olympic flag. Since Sydney, the International Olympic Committee has reinstated Afghanistan and formally recognized East Timor and Kiribati. Iraq's national Olympic committee, dissolved after last year's US-led invasion, was re-admitted last month. Fourteen countries participated at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. The lowest number was recorded in 1904 in St. Louis when only 12 nations sent teams.
■ Tennis
Agassi shrugs off tax bill
Andre Agassi isn't overly concerned about a British court ruling that will cost him some US$50,000 in taxes there on endorsement earnings. "At the end of the day, it's nearly a dollar-per-dollar wash on the taxes you have to pay here [in the United States]," Agassi said Thursday night after defeating Guillermo Coria 6-4, 7-5 to reach the Pacific Life Open semifinals. "You're paying taxes there or you're paying taxes here. I don't really begrudge them for it; no financial cost to me," he said. The ruling could affect other athletes such as Tiger Woods, the Williams sisters and other stars who play in Britain. Judge Sir Gavin Lightman of the London High Court on Wednesday ordered Agassi to pay taxes on income paid by Nike and Head Sports to his US-based company, Agassi Enterprises Inc.
■ Soccer
Ferdinand appeal fails
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand remains suspended for eight months for missing a drug test after losing an appeal on Thursday. He might have been going home with a 12-month ban. The England star had been found guilty of failing to appear for a doping test at Manchester United's training ground on Sept. 23. A three-man Independent Appeal Commission upheld the verdict and the eight-month sanction which runs until Sept. 20. It means Ferdinand won't be able to play for England at this summer's European Championship in Portugal and can't play for United until a month into next season. By appealing, Ferdinand ran the risk of the suspension being extended. But the panel turned down an application by the Football Association to increase the ban to 12 months.
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