■ Soccer
Gazza changes his name
Call him "the soccer player formerly known as Gazza." Paul Gascoigne, known affectionately by fans as "Gazza," says he wants to be called G8 -- a combination of the first letter of his last name and his old England shirt number. "G8 is right for us now," Gascoigne said. "It sounds a bit like great, or at least it does with my Geordie accent." Gascoigne said the name change would help put his troubled past behind him. He earned 57 caps with the England team and starred in the 1990 World Cup. However, a bout with alcoholism derailed a promising career. His wife, Sheryl, divorced him in 1998 after allegations that he hit her. Gascoigne says he has been free of alcohol for 22 months. Gascoigne quit as player-manager of Boston United on Oct. 5 after just two months at the helm.
■ Cricket
Ponting to guard his thumb
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said yesterday he will consider wearing a guard to protect his thumb in a bid to play a role in the Test cricket series against India. Ponting, who has missed the first two Tests in the four-match series on the sub-continent, broke his left thumb while fielding during Australia's six-wicket loss to England in the ICC Champions Trophy semifinal at Edgbaston. He flies out on today in the hope of playing in the fourth and final Test against Sourav Ganguly's Indians in Mumbay, starting on Nov. 3. "I'll test things out when I first get there. The first couple of days when I get there I'll just go pretty easily with catching and fielding drills," Ponting said. Australia lead the series 1-0 after winning the opening Test in Bangalore and drawing the second Madras Test after rain washed out the final day's play last Monday.
■ Rugby
Woodward chooses team
British and Irish Lions coach Clive Woodward has named a record 26-strong management team for next year's tour of New Zealand including his England successor Andy Robinson and former Lions' coach Ian McGeechan. He has also recruited Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan and Llanelli Scarlets coach Gareth Jenkins in the largest support party in Lions' history. "Whether on the coaching, medical, fitness, media, logistics or legal side of things it's about creating the right blend and a support structure to give us the best opportunity to be successful in New Zealand," Woodward said. The party includes seven specialist rugby coaches, including World Cup-winning England coach Woodward himself, plus two fitness trainers. He also has a lawyer, two doctors, three physiotherapists and a masseur. The Lions will play three tests against the All Blacks and eight other games on the tour which takes place from May to July.
■ Athletics
Doping case still hanging
Greek prosecutors have delayed announcing their findings into whether the country's top sprinters faked a road accident in a doping scandal that rocked the Athens Olympics, a prosecution source said on Wednesday. Chief Prosecutor Dimitris Papangelopoulos is now expected to decide whether to press charges against the pair and their coach later in the week instead of on Wednesday as had been thought. On Tuesday, headlines rang out with news that attackers had stabbed and beaten sports editor Filippos Sirigos, a key witness in the investigation into Olympic champion Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou.
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