■ Basketball
Yao Ming injurs his elbow
Houston Rockets center Yao Ming was held out of the team's final preseason game with the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night due to a hyper-extended left elbow.
Yao injured the elbow early against San Antonio on Wednesday night when he got tangled up under the basket with the Spurs' Rasho Nesterovic going for a rebound. He left the game but returned to play 25 more minutes and got 13 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. An MRI taken on the elbow Thursday revealed a "partial tear" of the ligament, according to team officials. They said he will be evaluated on a daily basis. Yao went through some light drills Thursday evening with a brace on the elbow.
■ Baseball
Omar Linares calls it quits
Chunichi Dragons infielder Omar Linares on Friday announced his retirement after spending three seasons with the Central League team. The 37-year-old Cuban slugger joined the Dragons in 2002 after a standout career with the Cuban national team. "I have nothing but fond memories of my time in Japan," said Linares. Linares helped the Dragons reach the Japan Series this year after hitting four homers and driving in 28 runs, but was limited to only 60 games because of injuries. He also had two homers and batted .389 in the Japan Series, which the Dragons lost in seven games to the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions. Linares played for the Cuban national team when they won the gold medal at the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics.
■ Auto Racing
Rally driver dies at wheel
A rally driver died of a cardiac arrest and his co-driver was in serious condition with spinal and other injuries following a crash during a competition west of Sydney, emergency officials said Friday. A spokesman for NRMA Careflight, a regional helicopter rescue service, said the driver of the car died at the scene from a heart attack following the single-vehicle accident Friday morning during the East Coast Targa Rally near Bathurst, about 200km west of Sydney. An NRMA spokesman said the other man, from Victoria state, was flown to a hospital near Sydney with spinal, neck and abdominal injuries. The spokesman said the injured co-driver was trapped for some time in the wreckage until being freed by rescuers.
■ Skiing
Maier writes biography
Four-time overall World Cup ski champion Hermann Maier presented his autobiography Thursday in Salzburg's Museum of Modern Art, saying its readers will learn new things about him. The book, called The Race of My Life,contains "many previously unheard episodes and some unknown facets of my personality," Maier said in a news release. The book mainly focuses on the four-time world champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist's August 2001 motorbike crash -- which nearly cost him a leg -- and the comeback that followed. Maier recalled the tough times after the accident during an interview broadcast Thursday by Austrian state television ORF. "I was always positive that I would survive, although I was shocked that my body was in such a critical condition," Maier said.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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