■ Soccer
Alam changes her story
The secretary who had affairs with the head of the Football Association and England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson claimed Tuesday she was the victim of sexual harassment by the FA's executive director. Faria Alam also said that Eriksson asked her to lie about their affair following media revelations last year. Alam, 39, is also claiming she suffered sexual discrimination and breach of contract, and that she was forced to resign after affairs with Eriksson and former chief executive Mark Palios became public. She told an employment tribunal in central London that, while working as David Davies' personal assistant, he made unwanted advances toward her. "At his flat on one occasion in 2003, he tried to hold me close and kiss me while I left," she said. She added that when she was having an affair with Eriksson, he told her that, if questioned by the FA, she should deny the relationship and he would do the same.
■ Hockey
Jagr supports salary cap
New York Rangers forward Jaromir Jagr said Tuesday that players' refusal of a salary cap in talks with the NHL was a mistake. "We started the fight because we didn't agree with the introduction of salary caps," Jagr said. "Now, we'll be happy to get them. We didn't expect the owners to be so tough and persistent. It was a risk that didn't pay off." The NHL and the players' association recently agreed that a salary cap model with an upper and lower limit will be the centerpiece of a new agreement. The lockout started last September and wiped out the entire 2004-2005 NHL season.
■ Soccer
Chelsea gets Del Horno
Athletic Bilbao left-back Asier Del Horno has joined Chelsea, the Spanish club said in a statement posted on its Web site Wednesday. Bilbao said Del Horno would soon give a news conference with club president Fernando Lamikiz. Chelsea said it was to pay 12 million euro for the 24-year-old defender, who has signed a three-year deal. Del Horno, who has spent his career with Bilbao, earned a regular place in the Spanish national team this season. In November, his goal beat England in a friendly at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium which was marred by racist taunting.
■ Hockey
Blackhawks hire new GM
The Chicago Blackhawks hired Dale Tallon as their new general manager on Tuesday, and he wasted no time firing coach Brian Sutter. "I've thought about this long and hard for the last six weeks," Tallon said. "This is not about the past, it's about the future. I want to start with a fresh sheet of ice, a clean slate, and move forward into the future." The Blackhawks were 91-37-118 in three NHL seasons under Sutter, and made the playoffs once, in 2001-2002. The NHL lockout canceled the 2004-2005 season. Tallon, the club's assistant GM since November 2003, takes over for interim GM Bob Pulford, who remains the Blackhawks' senior vice president. Pulford stepped in for Mike Smith in October 2003. Tallon, 54, was an NHL defenseman for 10 years, five with Chicago. He had 98 goals and 238 assists in 642 games.
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