■ Doping
Victor Conte pleads guilty
BALCO founder Victor Conte pleaded guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering charges in a deal with prosecutors, making it much less likely that top athletes such as Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery may be forced to testify about alleged doping. Two other men charged with Conte also were expected to plead guilty Friday to reduced charges, a law enforcement source said on condition of anonymity. A fourth man, athletics coach Remi Korchemny, delayed accepting any plea agreement. Conte, who founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, was charged with illegally distributing performance-enhancing substances to more than 30 of the biggest names in athletics and American football and baseball. He faced a maximum of 20 years in prison for the money laundering charge and five years for the conspiracy charge.
■ Auto racing
F1 fans to get refunds
Many fans who attended the boycotted US Grand Prix last month in Indianapolis, Indiana will automatically receive full refunds. The race's return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway is less of a certainty. Michelin and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced Friday that those with Speedway ticket accounts for the race will have their refunds processed automatically without needing to submit or sign any documents. Individual ticket buyers and holders of ticket stubs will have three weeks beginning Aug. 8 to submit claims. Michelin also confirmed it would buy 20,000 tickets for the 2006 race -- assuming it takes place. Speedway president Joie Chitwood said track officials were still considering whether to host Formula One's only US race for a seventh year. "At this point in time I can't confirm there will be a 2006 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis," Chitwood said. Chitwood said he was worried about a reoccurrence of last month's fiasco.
■ Golf
Chudy generates upset
Tiffany Chudy upset defending champion Tseng Ya-ni 4 and 2, in the semifinals of the US Women's Amateur Public Links in Kansas City, Missouri on Friday. Chudy had five birdies and just one bogey at the Swope Memorial Golf Course to eliminate the 16-year-old from Taiwan. Chudy will play Eun Jung Lee of South Korea in the 36-hole final on Saturday. Lee defeated Jane Rah, 14, 5 and 4, in the other semifinal. Tseng took the first hole with a birdie, but bogeyed four holes, putting Chudy 3-up after 11. "It was an OK round, but not my best round," Tseng said through an interpreter. "I'm a little bit disappointed. Tiffany played very solid golf."
■ Sumo
Asashoryu dominates ring
Grand champion Asashoryu overpowered Tosanoumi for his seventh win Saturday to sweep to the top of the standings as the only undefeated wrestler at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament. In the day's final bout, the 24-year-old yokozuna from Mongolia pummeled Tosanoumi with his trademark thrust and slaps that sent the fourth-ranked maegashira tumbling to the ground and rolling out of the ring. Tosanoumi remained winless with seven losses. Behind Asashoryu in the rankings were Kokkai, Iwakiyama, Wakanosato and Hakuho with six wins and one loss each. The win was Asashoryu's 24th straight.
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