■ RUGBY
Samoan drops complaint
Australian nightclub doorman Allan Teli withdrew a complaint that Springboks captain John Smit used a racist slur against him, according to South Africa Rugby in Johannesburg, South Africa on Thursday. Teli, a Samoan doorman at a Sydney nightclub, said Smit called him "a black [expletive]" upon being asked to leave on Sunday night. He said Smit was intoxicated. Teli laid a formal complaint with SA Rugby, but the union said he withdrew it in writing. Smit denied the charge, and SA Rugby said it was dropping its investigation. "The past few days was very unpleasant, but I was able to get through it thanks to the wonderful support I received from everyone," Smit said in a SA Rugby statement.
■ HOCKEY
Czechs defeat Fins 2-1
Jiri Burger scored his second goal in a penalty shootout to give the Czech Republic a 2-1 victory over Finland in the Ceska Pojistovna Cup in Liberec, Czech Republic on Thursday. Earlier, Sweden edged Russia 2-1 in St. Petersburg with Mika Hannula netting the game-winner on a rebound with 32 seconds left. Maxim Sushinsky gave Russia a 1-0 lead at 7:52 in the first period. Jonas Nordquist equalized at 8:35 in the second. Russia outshot Sweden 39-28. At Liberec, Jan Marek scored for the Czechs while Tomek Valtonen replied for Finland in the first period. The tournament is the first on the European Hockey Tour -- the unofficial European Championship. Other tournaments this season are in Russia, Finland and Sweden. Russia is the defending champion. The Ceska Cup ends tommorrow. All remaining games will be played at Liberec. The Czechs face Sweden while Finland plays Russia in the next round today.
■ BASKETBALL
Argentina leads pack
Charlie Bell scored 20 points and Aaron McGhee added 19 to lead the US to a 91-77 victory over Uruguay in the second round of the Americas World Championship qualifying tournament in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on Thursday. The US (4-2) moved into a tie for second among the eight quarterfinalists with Venezuela. Argentina (5-1), which clinched a berth in the world championships next year in Japan by winning the Athens Olympics, is first. The top four teams advance to Japan, and if Argentina is one of them, the fifth-place team qualifies. The US team, comprised of players from European leagues, the CBA and National Basketball Developmental League, finishes the second round against Puerto Rico.
■ BASEBALL
Greece won't appear
Greece pulled out of the baseball World Cup for financial reasons on Thursday and will be replaced by the Czech Republic. Greece withdrew less than a day before the 18-team tournament started because federation president Panos Mitsiopoulos claimed its expenses were not being met. "We have not received any state subsidies in 2005," Mitsiopoulos 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
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